Academic staff have welcomed decisions of two institutes of technology not to speed up a planned merger but will still vote on possible industrial action over the move.

A number of online courses at Cork Institute of Technology, which were due to start on Monday, look unlikely to go ahead on that day due to industrial action.

No online courses or modules will be taught by Cork Institute of Technology lecturers from the autumn after they supported a ballot over concerns about training and quality.

The quality and reputation of courses at Cork Institute of Technology may be at risk from management efforts to vastly increase the amount of classes and modules delivered online, lecturers claim.