Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh:

That is a good invitation. First, this is a whole-of-society approach. It needs all of us to work together and the Department, the Minister and the HEA have been particularly good at this and we welcome that. We want to see them encourage that along and have 19 July as the date. The funding mechanisms we asked for are particularly student-focused. The support and the timing around that will be critical.

Second is welcoming students and encouraging the continued focus on them. The Minister, the Department and the HEA and all our institutions have been particularly focused on student needs. We are not advocating here for our institutions, universities or the third level and higher education sectors; we are advocating for students. We would welcome that continued focus on student needs from the Minister. So we particularly encourage first, the whole-of-society approach, including the vaccination programme, and the sense that we are essential to society and second, the focus on student needs.