That nasty row about research funding has left a bitter taste in mouths of those in the Higher Education Authority and among some mandarins in the Department of Education.

The suspicion is that Mary Harney and her Enterprise gang want to muscle in on the multi-billion-euro bag of goodies - leaving only crumbs for the boffins in our colleges. TP hears Bertie was less than impressed by Mary's decision to bring the matter to Cabinet without reference to other Government departments. Expect this one to run and run.

Yes, it has been a dull election for education types, with hardly even a multi-million-euro promise or two to lift the gloom.

The policy proposals from all the main parties make for ideal bedtime reading - but they will do little to push education up the election agenda.

And there was TP thinking that we have been through one of the most traumatic periods in Irish education with all that nasty ASTI business - and the promise of more to come after the benchmarking report. TP has some advice for the politicos - take some risks, take on the vested interests, stand up for parents. There might even be a few votes in it!

All credit to Chuck Feeney, the Irish-American billionaire who is picking up the tab in many of our colleges to the tune of €500 million or so.

TP hears that Chuck - and Tony O'Reilly - wrote the cheque for the new O'Reilly Library in DCU.

All credit to both men. But how come only one got his name in lights?

That supervision deal worked out last week between the Department, the TUI and the INTO is good news for general secretaries Jim Dorney and John Carr.

As usual, Gentleman Jim played it cute. He ensured that the radicals/militants/ hardliners on the executive bought into the deal before he signed on. Is there a message here for the ASTI?

For Carr, it was also a good days work. Now, his challenge - and that of his new press officer - is to lift his profile.

That allegation by the institutes of technology that universities are taking the lion's share of research funding has annoyed the lofty dons in the capital.

TP feels that some of the non-Dublin universities could raise their game in the research stakes. UCC and NUI Galway are doing very well. Maynooth is performing reasonably. But Limerick - as my old maths teachers would say - could do better.

Got any education gossip? You can e-mail us in confidence at teacherspet@irish-times.ie