Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As we have a quorum we will commence in public session. Apologies have been received from Deputies Regina Doherty, Seán Crowe, and Joe O'Reilly.

I remind members of the usual drill regarding mobile telephones. I ask that they switch them off or put them on silent mode.

We will have a discussion with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, to explore education as a tool for empowerment and overcoming social disconnection. In layman or laywoman terms, that means we will have a good conversation about education and how we can learn and share experiences in terms of tackling disadvantage. The Minister will give account initially and then I will open up the discussion to the members.

The Minister is very welcome. It is his first time to attend before this committee. We appreciate him coming here and giving of his time. We hope to have a good engaging conversation this morning. His presence here today has garnered considerable interest in this discussion. I appreciate the attendance of members from different organisations and individuals in the Visitors Gallery who have come here today.

I will throw out a statistic that would be in the back of everybody's mind, namely, that of all the students who go to university in the Republic, only 0.5% are from Northern Ireland. That 0.5% statistic from 2008 has been a recurring one. There are issues around mobility, mobility challenges and mobility opportunities into which we will hopefully delve today.

I invite the Member to make his presentation and I will then open the discussion up to members.