Mr. Gerry O'Sullivan:

There are so many fascinating topics being raised here that we could discuss them all for a significant amount of time.

One of the issues we need to establish and separate in our minds is that there is a difference between students who come here for Erasmus, students who leave here for Erasmus and other students who come here for full degrees. Students on Erasmus go for short-term study and work periods of a maximum of 12 months but the period is usually much shorter. Students who come to Ireland from within the EU are entitled to move here freely under membership of the Union. Students from outside of the Union pay significant fees and are a particular target group for Ireland. Some of these students are impacted significantly by Brexit, some less so. In attracting fee-paying foreign students from outside of the Union, one of the attractive features is the student's ability to stay back in Ireland and work in the economy. Currently, the maximum period allowable for this is two years for a master's or a PhD and 12 months for an undergraduate, but I understand the UK has now extended its stay-back period to three years. That means it will compete more aggressively for those types of students. Within the Erasmus programme, our role as a national agency is to get more Irish students and staff to go out; we have no direct responsibility to support incoming numbers. Nevertheless, by virtue of the fact that we encourage outward-bound students, we do attract inward-bound ones. How can we capitalise on this? The measure of the challenge is that there are 27,000 students going to the UK from other member states. How could Ireland accommodate 27,000 more students? It would be significantly challenging for our country, let alone the higher education sector. We also must remember that the Netherlands, for example, teaches more courses in English than we do, so it is not an automatic sine qua nonthat Ireland is the most obvious destination for these students.

As for other students coming from Europe, we have several thousand students on full degree programmes in our universities, institutes, part-private institutions and other colleges, so our relationship with the European mainland is significant. One of the things we did not get around to talking about is the European Education Area, which is a priority of the current Erasmus programme, and which developed out of a European Council meeting of the 27 member states, partly in response to Brexit and partly due to the fact that if the EU was being developed and established today, education and research would be all over it. When it was established in the 1950s, coal, steel and atomic energy were the drivers of economic activity. Education now is playing that type of role. We need to look at how we can build closer collaborations with our European colleagues. It is not all about numbers; it is important we look at the depth of the relationship and how embedded it is in our teaching, learning and research and the professional development of our staff.

My colleague, Dr. Marron, might speak a little about inclusion. Financial barriers are being addressed. They have been a problem for our institutions for their youngsters to get out in Ireland. I mentioned the numbers earlier: 200 or 300 students from the North of Ireland who take up professional traineeship posts in the South. That is a very solid statement from students that they see themselves as part of an all-Ireland labour pool. They are contributing to the talent on this island. That is important to retain, and the Minister's decision to continue to fund that is very important.

Before I pass to Dr. Marron, I will comment on Michael Murphy and the GAA relationship. LYIT has gone a step further and made him head of sport, which is a significant development. Interestingly, in the development of the Irish diaspora, the single most important business network in Asia at the moment is the GAA. Members, who are young professionals, are finding work and places to continue their careers. That is significant. Twenty per cent of the association's membership is now outside of Ireland. For a traditional organisation, that is phenomenal. Of course, the president of the GAA is from the New York board. Ireland is changing rapidly. Education is playing a huge part. It is not just about transactions; it is about collaborations and the quality of them. Dr. Marron might add something because the new Erasmus programme has a lot to say about opening opportunities for students from under-represented backgrounds.