Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would be interested to hear the witnesses' opinion on whether or not we should go in this direction in Ireland in particular. We earn roughly €1 billion a year from international students coming to study, work and live with us.

Both Trinity College and DCU have been exceptionally successful in marketing Ireland abroad as a wonderful destination for education.

Yesterday, Estonia allowed international businesses to base themselves on a cloud basis in Estonia. They could become e-residents of Estonia in a matter of 24 hours and essentially have a base in the cloud that is aligned with Estonia as a state. What it is doing is very innovative and creative. Is there any opportunity in the future for us to create an Ireland MOOC or e-learning platform where all of the witnesses, given the exciting things they are doing, could plug their provision into that single portal? Therefore, if I am a student in Malaysia, Singapore or wherever, I will know that this is where I can go to access high quality online learning, because it is coming from Ireland and is perhaps marked under the education in Ireland brand through Enterprise Ireland. Perhaps a student might do their first two or three years through this portal and finally arrive in Ireland for the last year or even their postgraduate education. Is there an opportunity for that type of collaboration to happen in the future? Do the witnesses believe we should we do it, and how might we go about it?