Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can return to his question. We know that there is a lot of uncertainty. My officials in the Department of Education and Skills who are present have been working on the matter for two and a half years. We have been told that the legislation we need to pass relates to the SUSI grant. The rest depends on Brexit and what is decided about the common travel area. There are risks. As has been well publicised, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Erasmus+ programme may lead to the termination of opportunities under the programme for collaboration between schools and other educational institutions in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In particular, it may affect staff and student exchanges. It is also possible that if the United Kingdom leaves the programme, a number of the 30,000 students under it will divert to Ireland and thus create greater challenges for us in the higher education sector. Approximately one month ago the European Commission published a draft amended regulation to enable EU students currently in the United Kingdom and UK students currently in other EU member states to complete their exchange beyond 29 March. I welcome this.

To reply to Deputy Thomas Byrne's question, everything revolves around the endgame and the decisions that will be made, especially on the common travel area. We have begun discussions on what will happen next year. Once a decision has been made on the common travel area, we will be able to address the various contingency plans that need to put in place for the future.