Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 July 2025
878. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to detail all business cases received for capital works in each technological university, including the date received, the current status of each and the timeline for progression, in tabular form. [35964/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraTechnological Universities (TU's) were created under the Technological Universities Act 2018 and came into being from the period January 2019-May 2022. Following their creation, the new TU's were eligible for capital funding under the National Development Plan (NDP), enabling them to access dedicated investment streams to support campus development, research facilities and regional innovation.
Under the Infrastructure Guidelines, a Preliminary Business Case (PBC) is a structured document that assesses the strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management rationale for a proposed public investment project. The primary purpose of a PBC is to demonstrate the clear need for a project, its alignment with government policy and its value for money potential. Similar procedures were in place under the previous governance system, the Public Spending Code.
Technological Universities typically submit PBC's in response to Higher Education Authority (HEA) programme calls for capital investment. These submissions form part of a competitive process and are subject to evaluation by a panel made up of personnel from the HEA and DFHERIS. Decisions made on PBC's take into account issues such as available capital funding, sectoral priorities and individual project viability. Any decision to allow a project proceed through PBC stage is not considered a guarantee of capital investment.
Technological Universities individual PBC's are integral to the HEA and the Department's deliberative process in evaluating capital investment proposals and generally contain commercially sensitive information. PBCs may be integrated into wider proposals over time making it impractical to track progress of individual business cases.
