Crucial report on SETU and Carlow College merger redacted
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THE SOUTH-EAST Technological University (SETU) has declined to fully release the consultancy report that led to the decision to close Carlow College, despite multiple calls from public representatives that the university do so.
A request was sent by on 31 July under the asking SETU to release the external due diligence report compiled by Forvis Mazars concerning Carlow College. In a response dated 20 August, Dr Joe Collins, director of the Carlow College Strategic Initiative at SETU, decided against the full release of the report, as doing so ‘could reasonably be expected to prejudice ongoing deliberations and negotiations and would disclose commercially sensitive information relating to the parties involved’.
Instead, received a copy of the Mazars report with virtually every page blacked out.
Dr Collins repeatedly acknowledged ‘the public interest in ensuring transparency regarding matters affecting publicly funded institutions’, but concluded that ‘the public interest favours withholding the relevant information’.
Senator Patricia Stephenson and Dún Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett had previously requested that SETU make the due diligence report public during an Oireachtas committee hearing on 15 July.
Information not redacted from the report includes the purpose of the review, the introduction and context, the methodology used and the limitations of the review.
The consultancy firm relied on information provided by Carlow College to analyse the risks associated with integration with SETU under seven headings: finance, governance and legal, HR, academic, student services, IT and research. Information under each of these headings contained in the report was completely redacted.
The report compiled by Forvis Mazars was provided to SETU’s governing body on an interim basis in November 2025 and in its full form in February 2026. It was funded by the Technological Sector Advancement Fund, administered via the Higher Education Authority.
The purpose of the review was to analyse any material facts that could prevent collaboration or integration between Carlow College and SETU; the risk profile associated with such facts; Carlow College’s ‘trajectory’; its capacity to meet requirements associated with integration into a technological university; and the potential benefits and risks to SETU arising from integration.
Mazars further states that it interpreted the request for a report from SETU to ‘surface matters within the in-scope areas that the SETU leadership and GB (governing body) may need to focus on in more detail in the context of entering into a commitment to increase collaboration/integrate with Carlow College’.
Nowhere in the unredacted part of the report does it suggest that integration would not happen or that Carlow College would close.
A memorandum of understanding between the governing bodies of Carlow College and SETU was signed on 19 May and the parties agreed to continue negotiating a package that provided for a two-year ‘teach-out’, phased redundancies and the eventual transfer of the campus and buildings to SETU.
Dr Veronica Campbell, president of SETU, noted during the Oireachtas committee hearing that the report raised “some concerns” and it was only after considering its findings that the governing body was able to “work through the next steps”.
Senator Stephenson said she understood that the report was the catalyst that changed the trajectory of the relationship from an attempt at amalgamation to the closure of Carlow College. “It’s frustrating that the report was redacted to such an extent that its release sheds absolutely no light whatsoever on what led to the decision to close Carlow College,” she said.
Responding to a second request for any internal documents relating to the planned future uses of Carlow College, Dr Collins noted that ‘work relating to the detailed future use, occupation, allocation, development or operational deployment of the Carlow College campus has not yet commenced’, and therefore no records exist.
TD for Carlow/Kilkenny Natasha Newsome Drennan and Carlow College student activist Diarmuid Commins both described the release of the heavily redacted report as “cheeky”.
“It looks like they’re hiding something,” said deputy Newsome Drennan, arguing that it would be in the public interest to publish an unredacted version of the report.
She further described it as “very disturbing” and “so irresponsible” that SETU would enter into a memorandum of understanding with Carlow College without a plan for what it would do with the grounds being officially discussed. “No paper should have been signed without a future plan,” she said.
“This whole thing smacks of malicious compliance, trying to run the clock down and string things out,” said Mr Commins.
He raised the question of why SETU commissioned the due diligence report so close to the end of the line for Carlow College, when the prospect of integration had been on the cards since 2017. He wondered what might be in the report that, if made public, might have caused the deal between the two institutions to fall apart.
Mr Commins further pointed out that it was inconsistent that SETU held no records containing future plans for the college, when SETU president Veronica Campbell said the university was “very keen” to explore the potential use of the Carlow College site for student accommodation during the 15 July Oireachtas hearing.
“We are very keen to do a master plan of the site to flesh out the opportunities and the potential of the site. Student accommodation, which we know we have a shortage of in the south-east, is something we are very keen on exploring in that context,” Professor Campbell told the committee.
“It’s a massive campus in the centre of Carlow, the grounds of which the wider community access and use. We need assurances that the campus will continue to be used for educational purposes,” said senator Stephenson.
Responding to the news that a redacted version of the Mazars report had been released to , Dr Regina Donlon, lecturer in Irish history and member of the Save Carlow College Action Committee, said ‘the extent of the significant redactions means that the published document provides extremely limited additional clarity on the basis for the decisions that have led to Carlow College entering a two-year teach-out’.
Senator Stephenson said: “The community deserves transparency. Eighty-seven jobs will be lost and students will lose out on educational opportunities —we should know how this decision was made.” A spokesperson for Carlow College declined to comment on the FOI response, saying it was a matter for SETU.
