Sample letters

Sample Letters

Following are a number of template letters that you can use to contact the cabinet ministers and also your local TDs. These letters are provided as a starting point if you are wondering what to say. Please add your own points and passion for our university to your letters.

Sample Letter 1

Ministers,

The South East and Waterford have campaigned for decades for a university- to halt the brain drain from our region, put our economy on a growth trajectory and stabilise our society. We have seen the impact of the new universities in Limerick, North Dublin and Kildare, and the transformative growth, supported by government investment of Galway and Cork. Where is our bright future?

Despite being promised a university over a decade ago, we are now being offered a Technological University without any additional resources, based on a complicated merger between two institutions that have no rationale to be together, and with the smaller institution, that never sought university status appearing to call all the shots- most visibly on the headquarters issue.

WIT applied for university status fifteen years ago, and since then appears to have been strategically starved of resources. The last new teaching building received planning permission in 1998, two PPP buildings promised in 2011 were cancelled, WIT’s new PPP was pushed into bundle 2 and might not arrive until 2025. Meanwhile €996m was spent on new buildings elsewhere since 2009.  

It appears the good has been taken out of the TU. The Government rushed to deliver the Dublin and Cork TUs, both in cities with existing full service universities. These TUs received significant capital investment (Dublin €1bn/Cork €113m), and took over smaller institutions that were struggling. It does appear the Government is not contemplating the kind of transformative growth that is needed here- the TU will be little more than a rebranding exercise, Waterford will lose it seat of learning and the region will struggle for another generation.

Please lobby to see our TU properly funded, comparable the higher education funding that other regions receive, and to see that the merger is supported to be successful with clear leadership based in the regional city, in the largest institution and IT Carlow appropriately supported to continue its development.

You may have heard about FUSE, Friends of University for the South East. This group has united for one cause – to bring a university to the South East. We are asking you for your active support for the campaign, support WIT’s application for designation as a University and raise the matter with the Minister for Education.

Your support could make the difference and have a long-lasting, positive impact in the South East. To secure the future of education, jobs and the economy in the region, a university in the South East is crucial. Thank you for supporting the future.

Yours Sincerely,
A. N. Other

Sample Letter 2

A Chara,

We have been waiting a decade to see our technological university emerge, and now it appears to be no more than a rebranding exercise, with a complex merger that is unlikely to work.

The people of the South East are taking very close notice of this university issue. The 2020 election, across the region reflected on our collective disappointment at promises not kept- in health, infrastructure, job creation and particularly higher education. The traditional parties of Government continue to lose ground across the South East as they favour other regions with investment.

Our entire region will pay a high price is TUSE does not succeed, if it damages WIT and IT Carlow further. Please work to ensure it gets the transformative investment, focused on a single campus that can keep the next generation of young people from leaving for UCD, UL and UCC. Support our future, give us an equal chance to seize our own potential and make the South East region thrive.

Yours Sincerely,
A. N. Other

Sample Letter 3

Dear Ministers,

The people of the South East urgently need a university so that they can take the next step in their regional development.

We have repeatedly been told the TUSE is the only game in town and so we have to merge our two institutions for unspecified reasons, every other region in Ireland is served by both a university and an Institute of Technology. Every other region will see their Institute of Technology become a technological university. How is this progress, how will it deliver for the South East.  

Failure to deliver a university of substance to the South East will not be tolerated. This is the one issue that has united all people, from all backgrounds, across the entire region. The electorate of the region are currently well-informed about how this decision will be made and they are under no illusion as to the fact that this is entirely political in nature. A government that fails to deliver the requirements of those who elected them will not be returned to power – make no mistake. Deliver our university, deliver our future!

Yours Sincerely,
A. N. Other