The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, has referred the Technological Universities Bill to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills. Could the Taoiseach confirm when the Bill will come back to this House for a vote? I support the Bill, which is very important, especially for places such as the Tralee Institute of Technology that is seeking to complete its merger with Cork Institute of Technology to ensure its future viability.

As Deputy Michael Healy-Rae is aware, it would not do for us to try to short-circuit the committee's deliberations on the Bill. I will ask the Minister to provide more detail on the issue.

The work on the Bill is ongoing. As Deputy Michael Healy-Rae is aware, the Bill reached Committee Stage previously and it ran into a number of difficulties both in terms of industrial relations and also issues relating to the colleges, although not in the case of the colleges to which the Deputy referred. Work is going on with the colleges to define the spectrum of colleges that will proceed to technological university status and there are also some other issues to iron out before we come back to committee. I am anxious that those issues would be fully worked through so the Dáil and Seanad can be in a position to pass the legislation, which is an important statement for the future.