Dr. Breandán Ó Caoimh:

There is the accessibility to higher education, the outreach delivery, and the delivery of courses within the Gaeltacht. That is where broadband and such infrastructure comes into play. The reason the Gaeltacht figures are lower in educational attainment in the AIRO report is also to do with the age profile of the population and the fact that it is an older profile. That is one of the contributing factors there. That is one side of the issue.

While we may be looking here at the people who live in the Gaeltacht and may be working elsewhere, we also need to talk about the diaspora, the people who would live in the Gaeltacht and are gone. It is about giving them the choice. When we talk about things like skills audits, we need to be not geographically bound or confined. We need to look at the potential skills pool. That is very important when we engage with organisations like Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland and they look at the profile of an area and say there is not a supply of workers there. They are not looking at the potential supply. It is important, as I said in my intervention, to look at the potential of places and to invest in that potential. That includes investment in education and in giving people the choice to come back as well.