Mr. Lewis Purser:

I will deal with a few of the other questions, particularly the ones concerning students. Senator Black asked how a student from Belfast would be treated in a year's time, which is a very serious issue. Theoretically, that student could pull out an Irish passport and demand to be treated as a domestic student and we would agree entirely with that. Our preference is to continue to treat students from any part of the UK as domestic Irish students irrespective of what happens with Brexit. Maintaining good neighbourly relations, cultural contact and economic links will only continue if our young people continue to cross borders, work and study with each other and get to know each other. That is how we build up that sustainable future together so we have a very strong preference for maintaining the current terms and conditions for UK students in Irish higher education. What needs to happen is quite urgent because students and their families make decisions about where they will apply before Christmas. The CAO system for 2020 will open in early November but the UK system opens earlier. In the context of high-achieving UK students, the closing date for universities in the Russell Group, which is the group of 24 to 30 top universities in the UK of which Queen's University Belfast is a member, is before Christmas so we need to send out a very loud and clear message to UK students who would be interested in studying in Ireland and their families that we will offer them the same terms and conditions we used to regardless of what happens with Brexit. Otherwise, they will not know and the uncertainty is what drives people to make decisions. Unfortunately, we have seen those numbers drop off substantially in the past few years.

Senator Craughwell asked whether the Good Friday Agreement would allow us to establish some sort of bilateral agreement with the UK. I do not think we need the protection of the Good Friday Agreement to do that. I am very aware that a number of other European countries already have bilateral arrangements and memorandums of understanding with the UK to continue the sort of bilateral research arrangements Professor Ferguson said we need to put in place. We need funding for that. They would kick in automatically on the day on which Brexit really goes pear shaped. Schemes to ensure bilateral mobility are already in place, as well as European funding for young researchers and promising students. We need those as well. There is nothing stopping us having good bilateral relations with the UK or constituent regions and devolved provinces in the UK. That will become more important as we move forward so I would encourage this committee to put pressure where possible on the Government to begin to make those preparations where they have not already been made.

Dr. Keating mentioned advantages relating to the English language. On the surface, this is the case but in the higher education and research game, everybody speaks English and everybody has those advantages. We are and will remain small. We are marginal and on the edge of Europe and have an underfunded system despite the best efforts of SFI and other research funders. In the latest round of the very high-profile European Research Council grants, we got one out of over 400 grants. We are not at the races. The former president of UCD, Hugh Brady, was in Dublin last week. He said that his university, which is smaller than UCD, got more of those grants than the entire Irish system. That is what we are up against and that is why we need the investment. Then we will continue to be attractive and to be a magnet for top talent. This, in turn, will continue to draw foreign direct investment, boost SMEs and indigenous industry and continue to drive our economic development but that is the risk at the moment.