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Project Ireland 2040 was changed to boost focus on regional plans including TU in Waterford.

Project Ireland 2040 was changed to boost focus on regional plans including TU in Waterford.

The Taoiseach's office intervened shortly before the National Development Plan was published to boost the prominence of a university for the southeast.

The Irish Times reports that a senior official at the Department of the Taoiseach emailed the Department of Public Expenditure saying a technological university for the South-East needs to be singled out as a priority given the south east has no university.

The final version of the plan included a stand-alone section on a new TU for the southeast, to be formed from the merger of Waterford Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Carlow.

It also contains a reference to it participating in a network of European universities.

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While Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken favourably about the idea, this email seems to be the first suggestion that WIT could be an Irish campus for such an entity.

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