Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation here this afternoon. I enjoyed the theatrics from Professor Ryan. It helps to get the message across to people at home who are watching that it is simple and straightforward. If it gets the results he claims, then certainly it is a programme that should be funded. I presume that is part of what he will be looking for today from the committee - an increase in funding.

Many of us in Ireland would be horrified at the idea of people having a child outside the hospital environment, but I am an example of that. Ireland has moved on a good deal but I was born at home because I could not wait for the hospital. I imagine there are many others from my generation who went through the same thing. Anyway, with a simple breathing machine or breathing apparatus, people can go through it. I wish the professor well in that regard.

Deputy Brendan Smith said it was not unique and that other universities were involved, and he referred to different development contacts with other organisations. When I was on South Dublin County Council we were involved in a particular programme. The staff there went out and architects were trained. The funding came from the staff. I could never understand why that was not replicated by other local authorities. It was an initiative by the management. Everyone had seen the benefit of the exercise and anyone that went on the trip was an ambassador for change. Is there ever an opportunity for the different groups such as those of the delegation, South Dublin County Council and other universities to get together to consider the work they are doing and discuss their experiences and how they can be improved or replaced by other programmes? It seems so obvious. We always refer to the lack of joined-up government, but this is an example of how UCC could work in this area.

Reference was made to the number of students coming to UCC from different developing countries. Is there a difficulty for students coming to Ireland in terms of visas, accommodation and so on? How is this funded under the programme? How does UCC select the countries? Reference was made to how the embassies gave advice and so on, but how does UCC specifically go about it? Is there a programme in mind? Does UCC look around the world and decide that a given country is suitable for collaboration?