Minutes of Joint Meeting of the National Development Plan and Regional & Rural Affairs
Sub-Committee of the Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly held in the Assembly
Headquarters, Ballaghaderreen on Friday 24th February 2012 at 11.00 a.m.
Present:
Cllr. Matt Carthy
Cllr. Padraig Conneely
Cllr. James Daly
Cllr. Eamon Dooley
Cllr. Peter Feeney
Cllr. Joe Flanagan
Cllr. Connie Hanniffy
Cllr. Peter Keane
Cllr. Finnan McCoy
Cllr. Eugene Lavin
Cllr. Larry Bannon
Cllr. Cyril Burke
Cllr. Frank Dolan
Cllr. Dara Mulvey
Cllr. Damien Ryan
Cllr. Peter Savage
Cllr. Terence Slowey
Cllr. Tiernan Walsh
Cllr. Paul Canning
Mr. Brian Sheeran
Mr. Denis Duggan
Ms. Pauline White
Mr. Martin Daly
Mr. Padraig Maguire
Mr. Ciaran O’Cathain
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly (Chair)
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
Fisheries Ireland
Shannon Development
WDC
Midland Regional Authority
Border Regional Authority
Athlone Institute of Technology
Apologies:
Cllr. Gerard Corcoran
Cllr. Hubert Keaney
Cllr. Tom Crosby
Cllr. Martin Connaughton
Cllr. James Deegan
Cllr. Marie Therese Gallagher
Cllr. Gerry Finnerty
Mr. Aidan O’Donnell
Ms. Chris Forde
Mr. Rory Leahy
Mr. Joseph Ruane
Mr. Danny McLoughlin
Mr. Seamus O’Grady
Mr. Tom Daly
Mr. Mairtin O’Conghaile
Mr. Micheal Carrigy
Mr. Frank Dawson
Mr. Tony Dawson
Mr. John Magee
Mr. Seamus Bree
Mr. Brian Keating
Ms. Jackie Maguire
Mr. Gerry Riordan
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
BMW Regional Assembly
An Post
IDA
Bus Éireann
HSE Midlands Area
Midland Regional Authority (Designated Manager)
NUI Galway
HSE North West
Udaras na Gaeltachta
Midland Regional Authority (Cathaoirleach)
West Regional Authority (Designated Manager)
Fáilte Ireland West
Mayo County Development Board
Enterprise Ireland
Shannon Development
Border Regional Authority
Coillte
Mr. Paul Ridge
Mr. Adge king
Ms. Dorothy Clarke
Ms. Sarah Claxton
Mr. Padriag McDermott
Mr. Joe McGuinness
Ms. Martina Bromley
Mr. Frank Dawson
Mr. Martin O’Brien
Mr. Jim McGovern
Mr. Tom Costello
County Dev Board – Galway
County Dev Board - Monaghan
County Dev Board – Sligo
ESB
County & City Enterprise Boards
FÁS
North West Tourism
Roscommon Co Co
VEC
West Regional Authority
West Regional Authority
Mr. Gerry Finn
Mr. Kieran Moylan
Mr. Gerry Lavelle
Director, BMW Regional Assembly
Assistant Director, BMW Regional Assembly
Programme Executive, BMW Regional
Assembly
Policy & Research Officer, BMW Regional
Assembly
Staff Officer, BMW Regional Assembly
In
Attendance:
Mr. Adraian O’Donoghue
Ms. Eiméar Dowd
It was agreed that Councillor James Daly would chair the meeting on behalf of both subcommittees
1. Minutes of the Meeting of the NDP Sub Committee held on 14th October 2011
PROPOSED by Cllr. Peter Savage
SECONDED by Cllr. Connie Hanniffy and
RESOLVED
“that the minutes of the meeting of the NDP Sub Committee held on the 14th October 2011
be ADOPTED.”
Minutes of the Meeting of the R&R Sub Committee held on 14th October 2011
PROPOSED by Cllr. Larry Bannon
SECONDED by Cllr. Andrew Boylan and
RESOLVED
“that the minutes of the meeting of the R&R Sub Committee held on the 14th October 2011
be ADOPTED.”
2. Matters
1
Arising
.
There were no matters arising
3. Presentation by Professor Ciaran Ó Cathain, President Athlone Institute of Technology
on ‘Towards a Technological University for the BMW region’
Cllr. James Daly welcomed Professor Ciaran Ó Cathain, President Athlone Institute of
Technology, to the Joint Sub-Committee Meeting.
Prof. Ó Cathain, gave a presentation on “Towards a Technological University for the BMW
Region”
The presentation covered the following key points:
 National strategy for Higher Education 2030
 Increased Efficiencies
 Focused on student needs & workforce requirement
 Improved research & links with enterprise
 Alignment with international benchmarks
 Collaboration through regional clusters, alliances & mergers
 Improved system accountability
 A technological university will provide
 Professional readiness of graduates & proximity to the world of work
 Higher Certificate to Doctorate level awards
 R&D will stress applications and enterprise collaboration
 Faculty engaged with business, industrial & professional community
 Mission Statement
 “A technological university will have a systematic focus on the preparation of
graduates for complex professional roles in a changing technological world. It will
advance knowledge through research, scholarship and disseminate this knowledge
to meet the needs of society and enterprise. It will have particular regard to the
needs of the region in which the university is located.”
 Student profile – Enrolment in research programmes at levels 9-10 will not be less
than 4% of FTE enrolments at level 8 to 10
 90% of fulltime academic staff will hold level 9 or higher
 45% of full time higher education staff will hold level 10 qualification or the
equivalent in professional experience
 This figure to reach not less than 65% within ten years of designation
 Portion of staff who hold an equivalence in professional experience shall not
exceed 10%
 In areas of doctoral training and research, proportion of staff holding level 10 will
be in excess of 80%
 BMW TU Statistics– 47% of Ireland landmass
 27.1% of National population (1.24 million)
 9.4% increase since in population 2006
 T U to have 27,448 students
 What should the Assembly do
 Indicate support to Oireachtas
 Become an advocate for the BMW TU
 Take an Interest in regional innovation forum
 Committ the organisation to further engagement
 Indicative time line
 Consultation period – Feb. 2012 to July 2012 (response to HEA)
 By Feb 2013 an evaluation of the expressions of interest – Minister Statement
 Aug 2013 – preparation and evaluation of plan to meet criteria
 By 2017 Application for designated TU
Cllr. James Daly thanked Prof. Ó Cathain for his informative and detailed presentation to
the meeting.
In response to questions raised by the members Prof. Ó Cathain informed the meeting that:
 The timescale for the first phase of the submission (July 2012) relates to each Institute
of Technology stating their interests and although this is a relatively short timeframe,
it is achievable
 The HEA will advise the Minister who will release a Statement in 2013 on TU’s
 There is a possibility that all 5 IoTs, within the region, may not remain on board, but
no IoT will be allowed to become part of a University so this should encourage all the
IoTs to support the proposed BMW TU.
 A forum will be established comprising of parties from industry and public interests.
 Levels 6 and 7 provision will largely remain at the individual IT’s , but level 8 to 10
may be consolidated in a TU’s base or achieved via video link with the main base of
the TU (not sure what this means? Can you check notes)
 There is a proposal that there will only be one TU President and Registrar but each
IoT will have a Campus Director – this has not yet been agreed
 By 2020 an additional 70,000 students will be entering 3rd level, no single campus
could accommodate this number of students at the moment.
PROPOSED by Cllr. Damien Ryan
SECONDED by Cllr. Andrew Boylan and
It was AGREED that the BMW Regional Assembly would unanimously support the
proposal for a BMW TU and that a press release would be issued in the coming days
highlighting this support.
Mr. Gerry Finn told the meeting that the BMW Assembly would feed their support for the
TU through its involvement with LIONRA and through the consultative forum and asked that
every member of the Assembly highlight the importance of supporting the BMW TU through
each of their local Authorities. The proposal for the BMW TU, he stated, would be based
upon its quality and its success would be imperative for the region as a whole.
Cllr James Daly thanked all the members for their informative participation and again
thanked Prof. Ó Cathain, for his presentation and deliberation and assured him of the
Assembly’s support and backing for the BMW TU.
4. Presentation by Dr. Peter Heffernan, Chief Executive, Marine Institute on the
Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland “Our Ocean Wealth –Towards an Integrated
Marine Plan for Ireland”
Cllr. James Daly welcomed Dr. Peter Heffernan, Chief Executive, Marine Institute to the
Joint Sub-Committee Meeting.
Dr. Heffernan gave a presentation on “Our Ocean Wealth”.
The presentation covered the following key points:
The Global Opportunity €1.2 trillion
 Marine resources €337bn
 Services €786bn
 Manufacturing €96bn
Marine Industries Global Market Analysis
 Shipping & transport €342.7bn
 Oil & Gas €93.8bn
 Marine equipment €72.8bn
 Ports & Shipbuilding €62.7bn
 Marine IT & Survey €6.7bn
 Marine tourism €180.1bn
 Fisheries & Aquaculture €159.7bn
 Marine Biotech & Seaweed €8.1bn
 Renewable energy €128m
Our Ocean Wealth
 0.9m km2 (90% of Ireland) – Global Ocean is 361m Km2 (70% of earth’s surface)
 Value of our ocean is €2.4bn - Global Ocean value is €1,200bn
 Our Ocean 1% of GDP - Global Ocean is 2% of GDP
 The ‘Real Map of Ireland emphasizes that 90% of Ireland’s sovereign area is offshore
 Potential for convergence of ocean energy to ICT to Food to Shipping Financial
Services to Bio-Technology
 Ireland is ready for an EU Atlantic Strategy and has the following areas of expertise
 Research Capacity
 Specialised Infrastructures
 International Linkages
 Maritime Clusters
Cllr. James Daly thanked Dr. Heffernan for his informative and detailed presentation to the
meeting.
In response to questions raised by the members Dr. Heffernan informed the meeting that:
 60% of all sea food is imported into the EU
 Full map of Ireland detailing the boundary at seabed level now available within
National Schools curriculum
 Scale of potential renewable energy is very large and the road map for its
development is ongoing
 Wave technology is being explored and researched at the moment– Achill and coast
of Antrim the best wave potential along our coast
 Marine spatial planning – a view that one Department would work with the Local
Authorities in expanding their governance to ocean space
Gerry Finn informed the meeting that the BMW Assembly are presently preparing a paper
for submission to the national marine strategy which will highlight the potential in the area of
marine development and this will be lodged by the end of March.
5. Correspondence
There was no correspondence
6. Speaker for next Meeting
Mr. Kieran Moylan told the meeting the 2011 Progress Report for the BMW Regional OP
would be available at the next sub-committee meetings and speakers would be arranged in
the mean time.
7. Any
8 Other Business
.
The Cathaoirlach of the Assembly Cllr Cyril Bourke, had requested that the Assembly
meeting set for the 23rd March 2012 be rescheduled to the 30th March. This was AGREED.
This concluded the business of the meeting.
The foregoing minutes are confirmed.
Signed: _________________________
Cathaoirleach
Date: ______________________