Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am interested in education. The question has been asked before and I have seen it in operation when we were engaging in a twining arrangement with China. There would be an argument that the colleges are very competitive; that Trinity College, UCD, the Institute of Technology Tallaght or DIT have their individual stands; and that they do not co-operate. I am very conscious of the 32,000 students who are being attracted to Ireland, particularly at the higher levels of education. Is there a single Irish authority? The Saudis would send their children here under the King Abdullah scholarships and the Iranians would send their students to UCD under their state-funded educational schemes. This presumably is replicated across the board. I know there are many Libyan students here among others. There are batches of students from different countries but I find it hard to get my head around who in Ireland is the single authority if there is one or if one is needed to deal with these students on the world scene.

There was a relatively recent trade mission to India. We all know that India has a terribly difficult problem with energy. A third of the country could nearly go out overnight because of problems with energy supply. I am very conscious that the ESB does fantastic work in the international field. How is our relationship with India going?

This committee broke the ice only 15 months ago in establishing relations with Iran. How proactive is Enterprise Ireland in the Iranian market given the consensus view that the nuclear talks will reach a conclusion possibly in June and that we are very conscious that in 15 months, Ireland has engaged in about four visits? The Ceann Comhairle has visited Iran. The speaker of the Iranian parliament might visit here next month. There has been phenomenal contact in a very short period of time. When we visit Iran, we are very conscious that the Korean trade missions are there. The witnesses mentioned South Africa. When I was out there recently, nearly every government ministry was involved. I think there was a delegation of about 42. The world is looking at Iran. How do we look at a market like that where one can anticipate changes occurring?