The university row erupted after a long-running boundary dispute between Kilkenny and Waterford continues to fester.
Junior Health Minister Mary Butler, a Waterford-based TD, said Higher Education Minister Simon Harris had assured her that proposals of a Kilkenny base for TUSEI were mischievous and nothing more than kite-flying.
She said an application for the merger of WIT and ITC must be tabled by the end of April. Huge work is being done on the TUSEI project at the moment in terms of engagement with unions, advisory groups and politicians with a shared objective of having a university of international standing in the southeast,” she told WLRFM.
All pupils in special classes in mainstream schools will return on February 22.
Detailed plans will be circulated to schools tomorrow.
They will include detailed information on the steps which need to be taken for the planned resumption of in-school support for pupils with special educational needs.
The agreement follows two weeks of intensive engagement between the Department of Education, the INTO and Fórsa.
The INTO said as well as continuing to engage with the department on the limited reopening of special education provision, planning will also get underway for the wider reopening of schools.
In relation to special education re-opening, the INTO said it had secured a suite of necessary additional supports including: