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A meeting of the Chambers of the South East Region took place last evening (Wednesday, October 5) in Waterford to discuss the issue of a University for the South East region.
Announcing that universal agreement had been reached amongst the Chambers to collaborate on seeking a University for the South East the group of Chambers will be seeking to meet as a group with political representatives in Dail Eireann to press the case for a university of the South East.
The nine South East Chambers which represent a region with almost half a million people have identified that a key priority for economic recovery of the region is the designation of a Technological University of the South East. Many of the population in the region are disadvantaged by not having the same access as other regions to a University. University designation will lead to improved links between industry and education and strengthen the indigenous industrial sector by promoting opportunities for increased levels of Research and Development.
The ESRI estimated that higher levels of education added at least one per cent to economic growth each year in the 1990s. The South East has traditionally had lower levels of educational attainment at third level that the rest of the country and there is no doubt that this has contributed to the fact that the economic performance of the South East has lagged behind the rest of the country.
Commenting at the event Anne Marie Caulfield, President of the Waterford Chamber, said “The lack of University Status is a roadblock to our economic development in the Southeast; as third level education has been, and will continue to be, a key driving force in generating economic activity. As far back as 2005 Goodbody Economic Consultants identified that a University would bring in excess of €96m annually into the economy of the South East which is surely one of the strongest arguments for University designation for the region.
In the South East, there has also been an absence of a strategic economic development plan and the uneven spread of access to Universities is unacceptable. Ireland is a small economy, and of course, we have to think in terms of the national economy but it is also true that it regional economies working well together have much to contribute to national economic development.
Key to the development of the South East will be University designation which will attract and retain people in the region, who in turn create employment spin off, and are also innovators and entrepreneurs themselves. It is that self-reinforcing process, the opposite of people leaving to find opportunity elsewhere, which will form the base for southeast regional development.”
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