Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The views the Minister expressed on Waterford, Carlow and Wexford co-operating to provide a university for the south east are very welcome. It is important to acknowledge that, as the Chairman said, the overwhelming majority of people in government and opposition have been co-operating toward this big overall aim. I am concerned that some media outlets in the south east have been facilitating the naysayers a little bit too much.

I echo the remarks by the Chairman, who is a County Wexford colleague, about the hospitality sector. I do have a concern around the Erasmus programme, however. A significant number of students in the hotel and catering area used to go on Erasmus to Britain and particularly to hotels in London. That is a problem as the UK has left the programme. I encourage the Minister to look at say, the Turing scheme, to develop closer links.

Coming back to my earlier question on the scale of the challenge we are going to face and the key role of the technological sector, especially the pace of technological change we are going to face over the next decade, we are going to see increased automation in a whole variety of fields. One of the challenges we are seeing at the moment with Ulster Bank is because of the shift to digital banking. There is a crucial role here around dealing with all of that technological change and upskilling and reskilling all our citizens and it is that leadership role which the Minister's Department must take. My question earlier was around the scale of the capital and research investment which will be necessary to ensure we are equipped for that. What is happening in banking at the moment is in many ways only the canary in the mine. We are going to see huge technological change and this sector must play a crucial role in that. That is why I am concerned about not just the scale of the investment but also that there is an understanding at the heart of Government about how important it is.