Mike Jennings, General Secretary of IFUT, said, “It beggars belief that not one single place has been found on this Group for a serving member of the Teaching and Research staff of our Universities or Institutes of Technology. Yet there are no less than four Senior Civil Servants. Obviously the Minister wants to control the kind of advice he is to get.”

“Equally, the choice of two business people together with a Chairman from Financial Services indicates that the Minister is incapable of seeing Higher Education in anything other than narrow financial terms.”

“Batt O’Keeffe may be a protégé of the Taoiseach but it is clear that he does not share even nominally Mr Cowen’s often stated commitment to Social Partnership.”

The IFUT Press Release is available here.