€45k just to get colleges to talk to each other about merger

More than €45,000 of public money is being spent just to get two third-level colleges in the south-east talking to each other about the possibility of resuming merger talks.

The figure includes at least €33,000 to fund a report, last July, for Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan. The report’s author could not get management of Carlow and Waterford institutes of technology in the same room in the six months he spent working with them.

The difficulties were attributed by the author, Higher Education Authority ex-chairman Michael Kelly, to the continuing distrust between WIT and IT Carlow.