Professor Diarmuid Hegarty:

I, too, wholeheartedly agree. I will link this back to the Senator's previous question. I will not develop the point but there is a question for the committee around the role of transition year in something like this, that will link into it. In response to the Senator's direct question, higher education has a role to play. The focus also needs to be on us because we also have a responsibility. We have given a lot of thought to the first semester. It is about orientation and induction. There is a pattern by which we bring people into third level and they face exams two or three months later. A number of us have been asking for some years what the point of that is because there is something about that link back. As the Senator said, if there is a difference at the top of second level to prepare, equally, there might be a receiving piece in third level that helps that transition and integration.