Minister ‘can’t get involved’ in ITs row

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan says she cannot get involved in the dispute in which lecturers at institutes of technology in Cork and Tralee are moving towards industrial action over a planned merger.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has lodged a dispute against Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) with the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), in the row around the issue of their intended joint application to create a Munster Technological University (MTU).

TUI assistant general secretary Aidan Kenny said any move to change the status quo while the matter was in dispute, by merging the two colleges, would trigger industrial action. The ballot that would authorise such action is to be sent out to the union’s 800 academic staff members at CIT and ITT in the next few weeks, after local consultations on the form it should take.