Dr. James Browne:

I want to make a brief comment. To go back to the issue of rankings, a third issue with rankings, and I fully support the comments made by my colleagues, Professor Deeks and Professor Barry, is the impact on FDI. We should be clear about that. International companies watch those rankings and they are clear that they wish to have access to the graduates of universities that are rated internationally. To give a recent simple example from Galway, the very first investment by an Indian FDI medical technology company in Galway was driven by its recognition of activity in the university in a centre called CÚRAM, which is funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Its first contact with and knowledge of Ireland was through work that was reported from that CÚRAM centre.