Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On St. Brigid's Day. I thank the Deputy for that. This morning we have a speaker from the House of Commons who is running its centenary programme for women suffrage.

I apologise if someone has picked up on it already but I listened with great interest to what Mr. O'Neill said about there being no positives. From some of the events concerning Brexit which I have attended in recent months, the only positive note that seemed to be struck was struck from an academic setting or context. In particular, researchers from Science Foundation Ireland and others commented that there may be a positive spin-off in terms of attracting academic researchers who see that with Brexit they will lose the potential for collaboration and, in particular, European research grants. We may be able to attract them here. Will Mr. O'Neill comment on that from the perspective of the chamber of commerce? Is there potential there in terms of a research and development environment from a commerce point of view?