Professor Maggie Cusack:

I will answer the first of the Senator's questions. As we said at the start, I consider MTU an incredibly exciting opportunity, with all the changes that we are describing today in the landscape towards TUs. MTU has a lovely combination of the urban and rural and real synergy can play out in those two sectors in terms of the expertise of individuals, those different communities we serve and all of those industrial links that we have to benefit those across the entire MTU. I think it will be more than the sum of its parts.

I have received feedback from people on the ground in Cork city who are talking about the level of excitement that we have MTU here and now. We have University College Cork but there is a different flavour to the offering of a TU and we can really pick up on excitement for the opportunity. The situation is similar in Kerry. A number of people have said to me that people have left because there is no university in the area. The establishment of MTU really serves Ireland 2040 and its ambitions as they apply to the rural economy and the stickiness in allowing people to stay in the area, be a part of that community and contribute to society and the economy. There are many positives across that regional footprint and everyone is absolutely committed to building on the strengths of the institutes of technology so that connectedness in the community links with industry and companies and how we can take that and grow it, without diluting it in any way. We will grow that offering through the cutting edge research and innovation we deliver in co-production with companies. That will be to the benefit of all of our students and staff now and for generations to come. That is what we are building here so that long after we are all gone, there are great technological universities delivering in Ireland.