Mr. Justin Gleeson:

Following up on the point about the potential of areas, and commenting also on Deputy Doherty's migration piece and young people, while one of the big challenges coming down the line is the older population, the other side of that is we have just gone through one of the biggest population booms in the country, where crèches that were filled are now dropping in terms of numbers, but primary schools throughout the country, including in Gaeltacht areas, are packed, and this is moving into secondary schools. In the next five to ten years our universities and higher education institutes are going to be busier than they have ever been.

There is a real opportunity and challenge over the next five or ten years to retain all of these young people who are living in the Gaeltacht and who may be going on to university by providing the services in the Gaeltacht, so that when these young people go to university and get further qualifications, they will be attracted to come back. There is definitely an opportunity there but there is a time element to it. This is a huge cohort of the population that is going through the population cycle at the moment, and in ten years they will have left. There is a challenge and an opportunity on that side.