Mr. Tony Brazil:

To answer the question about the Coonagh campus, we have done the enabling works and are in negotiation with our education people for the funding for the fit-out. We are hoping those funds will be released shortly so that we can proceed to open the campus there next September. It will have capacity for 800 students and we are very excited about that. It is a critical piece of the architecture of the formation of the college because we need more space. When students leave the Moylish campus, a public private partnership, PPP, will come on board. We have signed a memorandum of understanding preliminary to the building of a four-storey ICT building on that site.

The preparation for the progression to a technological university is a great challenge. There is good news in that LIT has some experience, having worked to blend the Tipperary institute into LIT. We have good experience of the communication and leadership skills that are needed. There is no doubt that there have been speed bumps in the negotiations with AIT, but the people involved are sensible. The executives on both sides have been meeting and the boards will be meeting soon in that regard. There will be progress.

The big step in the development of the technological university is the fact that the Government has committed to a fund of €90 million over three years to assist. We need to strengthen in some areas, including an increase in the number of PhD people on the staff, more postgraduate courses and more research work. We are confident that, given the funds that are likely to be available, we will be in a position to do that.

Another good thing is that AIT and LIT complement one another. The two institutions do not pirate students in the sense that the core areas from which the two institutions draw students do not necessarily overlap. In reality, there is very little haemorrhage of people from the mid-west into Athlone and, similarly, from Athlone into Limerick. That makes for an easy transition. In addition, a number of the courses that one institution or the other are doing will now work in tandem. There is already goodwill.

We do not have a timescale for the process but a couple of years will see considerable change and it is hoped this will become a reality. The executives on both sides are sensible so I see no reason this will not become a fait accompli.

LIT works very closely with SOLAS on apprenticeships. Our modus operandiin LIT is to embrace our partners in industry and commerce around us. We have very good, close relationships with all of those people. We will, next year, start some wet trade apprenticeships that had fallen off a cliff during the recession. We are very much up for all of that.

I will give the committee a good example where we are involved with apprenticeships. Lufthansa at Shannon has an important maintenance unit. We are now working with Lufthansa so that their apprentices can work through us to gain bachelors of engineering degrees.

Talking about apprenticeships generally, I have been involved in career guidance for a long time. It is unfortunate that many people, particularly parents, see apprenticeships as they were in the old days where the apprentice was the gofer person. The apprentice nowadays goes right up to level 9 in university standing and we really need to reinvent the title "apprentice" so that is understood. From a career guidance perspective, we probably need to go right back to the last year of primary school to get people to understand that apprenticeships are a better way of life. I read a report recently from someone in the career guidance sector who previously spoke to the committee. That report referred to a woman with four postgraduate qualifications who, every time she passed a building site, envied the people there driving big cars and earning much more money than she was.

We do a great deal of work in the culinary area in LIT, and it is the same problem with the attitude to catering. Many parents and families believe that catering is pot-walloping as opposed to being something for which people can get good training and professional development. As I know from my side of the business, head chefs in many leading hotels can earn nearly as much as the chief executive. There is a need to do something about that attitude.

On access, I mentioned earlier that I am involved in DEIS schools. Currently, eight students from an adjacent DEIS school - Thomond community college, which the Acting Chairman will know - are in first year at LIT. We have provided a fund of just under €1 million for scholarships exclusive to DEIS pupils who otherwise might not be able to get to university. We believe that is a significant step for us to take. As we speak, approximately 55 or 60 students are on courses at LIT under that guise and we are delighted to be able to do that. It shows our intent to provide for people who otherwise might not attend university. The experience in the college is that those students often become the best students. They finish their course and always emerge with flying colours, which we are proud of.

I hope I have answered all the questions that were asked.