Mr. Tim Conlon:

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh. That is a very interesting question. From a HEA perspective, it is something of that balance between the national policy agenda, and, as I mentioned before, what is important locally, regionally and nationally. We will particularly have that experience on the western seaboard, for example, where we have an emerging technological university looking at the broader region and how that region can be empowered and lifted to attract the kind of foreign direct investment, FDA, the Deputy has mentioned.

It is also about keeping people, rather than having them emigrate, and there is the question of whether there will be resources and opportunity within a region. Perhaps the best people to judge that are those who are in the region on the ground, and that is the institutions themselves. When setting out their strategy, they must demonstrate how they are responding to national priorities. They are most aware of what is the requirement locally and what is happening there, and so there is a balance in accountability and autonomy that will allow them to be free enough to respond to local needs. They will understand far better than somebody sitting in Dublin, for want of a better expression.