Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

The framework for interaction with businesses is really important. The main interaction is the one between businesses and further education and training institutions and higher education institutions. We have established a regional structure so that we can enhance the dialogue at regional level between employers and institutions in further and higher education. We have published a discussion paper about investment in further and higher education. I am not aware of responses having been received. To be fair, there is a range of businesses. They range from SMEs up to the big multinationals. There is a recognition of the need to have sufficient funding in place for further and higher education and training. I did not talk about the apprenticeship developments but those are under way as well. It is a challenge for them. To be fair to them, in our dialogue with them, some of them have been supportive of considering increases in the national training fund, NTF. Listening to what they have been saying, they would like to see commitments from the State at the same time. This is the first year in a number of years where we have been able to enhance the budget in higher education with the additional €35 million we received in the budget. Businesses would like to see a mechanism where there is balanced increased investment by the State if they are to put in increased investment. There is a third element to that, particularly the question around whether there is increased support in higher education from the learner's point of view. The Cassells report is under consideration at the moment by the Joint Committee on Education and Skills so we are looking forward to seeing the response to that. It is a balanced range of different areas.