Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I should have acknowledged earlier that the Minister of State, being from the mid-west, has taken a very keen interest in AIT and LIT. It is great to have that local knowledge of the region in our Department.

I thank Senator Byrne for his comment on the hospitality sector. We will collaborate very closely with this sector which has been so badly hit. I could not agree with him more on developing closer links with the UK. We have had the Scottish-Irish review across Government and I have had a meeting with the deputy First Minister of Scotland to talk about how we can advance some of those areas in the research space but also in the potential scholarship type space. They are not in Erasmus but there may be opportunities to do things bilaterally. I had a meeting with the UK universities minister as well and there will also be comments shortly on Wales and Ireland working together, so I will keep in touch with the Senator on that.

I really take the point on the scale of ambition. It needs to be massive, both from a policy point of view and a funding one. One of the things I and the Minister of State did was convene a group of IBEC, AmChams, the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce and others to ensure there is a shared understanding of the scale of this. I mention also ISME and Chambers Ireland. Whether one is a small business in a provincial town or a massive multinational, we as a Government want to be ready for the changes which are coming. It is good from a business point of view but most importantly it is good from a well-being point of view for our people.

I am really excited by the idea of a skills audit being carried out by IDA Ireland, working closely with my Department. The IDA will bring a business knowledge and we will bring an education knowledge. I think that could work. We are currently reviewing the skills infrastructure, including the National Skills Council and the regional skills fora to see what is working and what is not. We have on official working really intensively on that as well. We also have a very ambitious national development plan alongside our research and innovation policy work which will continue this year. The statement of strategy will probably be published next week as well.

Deputy Ó Cathasaigh's question is probably most appropriate for the Minister of State.