Mr. Fintan Moloney:

The figure I gave of 135 relates to people who are physically present in Donegal. To answer the question on the Connacht-Ulster alliance, the North-South collaboration was formed quite a number of years. Brexit has raised a couple of questions on where we can go from here but there is certainly a guarantee that the fee structure of courses at LyIT on which there are students from the North will not change until they complete their courses. With regard to what will happen after Brexit, and what form it will take, I am afraid we are all still looking towards the heavens.

With regard to the Connacht-Ulster alliance, the registrars, presidents and financial controllers have monthly meetings. On top of this, the chairmen have also met on a number of occasions. For my part, there is a little hiatus at present because my authorisation to act as chairman finished on 30 September and I did not hear until 25 October that I was to have designate title until such date as I am approved, if I am approved. I am not assuming anything in this regard. I would like this hiatus to cease so we get back on track. Any vacuum will delay the process of the Connacht-Ulster alliance. There is a lot of work to be done. There is a lot of negotiation to be done and a lot of trust to be built up among the three partners to bring it to the stage where we can make a technological university application.