Dr. Tom McDonnell:

Indeed. As the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Caltech are the best educational institutions in the world, one does not need to have the university moniker, although there certainly is no harm in it. However, what one needs is the funding going in there that produces the innovations and has the people working there with business to produce the high-potential start-ups for the south east, which are connected into the local innovation system. While NUI Galway, the University of Limerick and UCC can provide those roles in the other cities, that is not present to the same extent in the south east.