Mr. Paul Hannigan:

Yes, there was definitely consultation. To set out the chronology, last year in 2012, the Minister met with the chairs and the presidents from each of the colleges, institutes of technology and universities. In that discussion in February 2012, there was an element of North-South collaboration. He subsequently met us again in November 2012 and there was no mention of cross-Border collaboration. A document was issued in January 2013, on which we were consulted and again there was only a slight mention, just one sentence on cross-Border co-operation. From our perspectives we went back with a very strong position on clusters - to which Senator D'Arcy referred - and raised the question of whether we would have a cross-Border regional cluster. We put it that we should engage from that perspective so that there is direct engagement with higher education institutions in the North. We try to deal with issues from that perspective. I am not sure what is in today's document, but I know the Minister said earlier that there was some element of cross-Border collaboration within the document he is publishing today.