Professor John FitzGerald:

Deputy Brendan Smith talked about how people who go on to third level can be kept in the area. In Northern Ireland, the cap on numbers at third level is binding. An increasing number of people from Northern Ireland have been going to third level but they are going to third level at Liverpool Brookes University. It is surprising that they go somewhere like Liverpool Brookes, where they are paying very high fees, when they could probably go to the Republic. Better still, resources could be reallocated in Northern Ireland to allow more students to study there.

A really important feature of the institutes of technology is that they have been tied to the local labour market. For example, if healthcare equipment is a big issue in Galway and Mayo, GMIT prepares students for it in terms of certificate and diploma courses. The institutes' tie-in with the local labour market and skills needs has been undervalued in the Republic. The absence of something like that in Northern Ireland has been a problem. One of the problems in the North is that there is a need to reallocate resources to provide more places. In the Republic, we can do so much, and we can do a lot more in terms of co-operation, but Northern Ireland has to make choices for itself on this.