City Council Rejects Motion on CIT-UCC Merger

A motion calling for the Minister for Education to investigate the possibility of merging UCC and CIT was dismissed at the most recent sitting of Cork City Council, with only the motion’s proposer voting in favour.Fianna Fáil Councillor Tim Brosnan brought the motion to the City Council, arguing that if such an amalgamation took place the administration costs of both institutions could be greatly reduced.  “Both UCC and CIT are multi-million euro operations and the more savings that can be made the more that can be ploughed back into the University,” Brosnan argued.The Cork North-East Councillor added that the improved range of courses offered by a combined institution would “attract more foreign and domestic students,” as well as greatly improving the resources the individual institutions can currently offer.

“Both UCC and CIT are multi-million euro operations and the more savings that can be made the more that can be ploughed back into the University.”

However the other councillors present at the meeting were quick to criticise the motion, with Lord Mayor Mary Shields stating that such topics were outside of the Council’s remit. Brosnan’s party colleague John Sheehan echoed Shields’ claim, adding that CIT and UCC were, as individual institutions, more than capable of catering to the demands of current and future students.Sinn Féin’s Stephen Cunningham, a UCC Government student and one of Cork City Council’s youngest ever members, described the motion as “ridiculous,” claiming that such a move would “be in no way beneficial to either UCC or CIT.” Cunningham added that any such move had the potential to damage both institutions and would pose a threat to current plans for CIT to merge with Tralee IT to create a Technological University for the south of Ireland.

"I believe that those of us who live in Cork and indeed those across the country should share my pride in Ireland's only internationally recognised university.”

“Within the motion itself the proposer mused about the so-called 'potential' for Cork to finally have a 'major' university,” Cunningham noted. “As a proud UCC student of four years, I find the implication of such an assertion to be quite offensive. I believe that those of us who live in Cork and indeed those across the country should share my pride in Ireland's only internationally recognised university.”Despite the cross-party dismissal of the motion, Brosnan highlighted that he was not prepared to give up on the idea: “I believe in the power of one and I will follow up by writing to the Presidents of both institutions asking them to explore the proposal. I recall a previous vote when I was in the perfect minority of one. On that occasion I was the lone voice against the introduction of clamping in Cork City. It was introduced, caused public outrage over time and was scrapped.”