Mr. Martin Murray:

They do not want it to be only that. We are working very closely with our Asian peers to deepen the partnership to involve joint research and staff exchanges in both directions. The ideal scenario, which would get around the visa issue, would be for Irish universities to start opening a joint campus presence on the ground in Asia.

Deputy Grealish also made the point that sometimes there is a problem of people going to the same location selling similar courses or whatever and, therefore, there needs to be improved diversity.

Regarding the British Council, while I understand the resource issue, I recall a recommendation from some years back with pleasure that Ireland would have the equivalent of the British Council even as a scaled-down version. That could make a huge difference on the ground promoting our culture, literature, education and, as the Senator rightly said, within that our belief in human dignity and integrity and human rights. That would be a wonderful development. Very often when we have an Ireland House building, we are missing that aspect to it and that perhaps could link into the resourcing on the ground. Equally, we have said in the past that Ireland works best when the agencies and the embassy are all in one building. It is a much better team effort. Our work is very much a Team Ireland collective so I fully respect and endorse the Senator's comments.