Mr. Paul Hannigan:

I will comment on a couple of points made by Senator Gallagher. First, Michael Murphy will be okay. I reassure the Senator on that. We hope that will be okay.

On the broader political context, the local authorities have come together strongly around this and built up the concept of a north-west city region, which has got recognition within the national development plan. That has been an important development in tying down the North-South collaboration element and the benefits that can accrue to the region.

Nobody can argue against education. Everybody benefits from it, from the access agenda right up to the provision of PhDs. Something can be provided to everybody. That is the benefit we have which we can bring into this forum. We are regularly asked to present to this forum on what we are doing but it is always to a political system. We say what we are doing and how it can benefit the relevant region. We do not sense any objections from any political parties on this side of the Border or on the other side. That is a strength of the collaboration and it would apply to Dundalk and to any other educational institutions engaging on a cross-Border basis. This is something we have to continue to build upon.

Some 13% of our staff live in Northern Ireland, which is a significant percentage. The mobility between Derry and Letterkenny is such that the Border-crossing between the two is the biggest in the country for people accessing work, education and everything else on a daily basis. It is part of who and what we are. That comes through in the work we do. People are easy and comfortable with each other in that space. We recognise that there are issues from a bigger political perspective. There may be issues as to whether the assembly succeeds or not over the coming days. We will have to work with that. On the ground, there is strong political engagement with the local authorities. That is embedded and supported at a national level and through the North-South Ministerial Council. All of those things are in place. For the higher education players within that, it is an easy space to play in because we know we have political support. We have been here previously when we did not have such support and were isolated. We are in confident in what we are doing, what we can do and what needs to be done. We will continue to plough that furrow.