Minister for Education Jan O'Sullivan has warned Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) that she is not for turning on the prerequisite that it merge with another institution if it wants to achieve university designation.

WIT has thrown plans for a technological university in the southeast into disarray having pulled out of merger talks with IT Carlow.

Speaking at an Oireachtas committee, Ms O'Sullivan urged management at both institutions to engage with the talks process she had set up under former Higher Education Authority chairman Michael Kelly.

“The problem I have with all of this is there seems to be a suggestion that somebody out there is going to make this happen,” she said.

Effort needed

“They have to make this happen for themselves. There is an impetus that they have to engage in the process. They have to want it. They have to do a certain amount of work themselves . . . Just sitting sitting back and saying, ‘we can’t do it’ is not going to achieve anything for anybody,” she told the Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills.

Ms O’Sullivan confirmed the requirement for merger to achieve technological university designation would be contained in legislation due for publication after Easter. She said it was hoped this would be enacted by mid-2015.

She also urged the institutes behind the Munster Technological University bid to engage with staff to explain how its estimated €6.7 million merger costs would be paid for.