Ms Anita Murphy:

I thank Senators for reading my submission and inviting me to this meeting. I am a private Irish citizen who was born in Leixlip, County Kildare, but who has been living in Belfast for 22 years, which is almost half my life. I have three teenaged daughters of 18, 16 and 14 years of age. I made my submission to the committee not as a professional expert, of whom there are plenty in attendance, but as a user of both education systems. I was a student in the Republic of Ireland and am a parent of children educated in Northern Ireland. Senators have heard about academic outcomes and systems, but I wish to discuss my lived experience.

My submission referred to primary school and the transition to secondary or grammar school, my involvement with an Irish language bunscoil and integrated schools, and the need to secularise the whole system. As I only have time to discuss one point, though, it will be a matter that has been close to my family this year, given that my oldest daughter just went to third level. Where I live, there is a lack of understanding among people on the ground of the two education systems on the island. It surprised me this year that, despite the significant difference in the fees between Great British and Irish universities, all of my daughter's peers were applying through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, UCAS, to study in Scotland, England and Wales and most were not applying to Irish universities through the CAO system even though they were fully entitled to do so. The CAO system differs very much from UCAS and, in many of my conversations, many people struggle to understand it. In my social network, I became the expert because I went through the system, but I filled out a CAO form in 1991.

In my conversations with Northern Ireland families, the lack of student housing was the number one reason they were not even going to apply. Of those students who go to Great Britain, one third will never return. From an economic point of view, this is a loss to the island of Ireland in the long term. With this year's delays in the leaving certificate results, students like my daughter who applied through both systems had to accept their UK systems before the CAO's offers were out. This lack of co-ordination was another barrier this year. The island of Ireland is a small place and it makes sense for third level education to be shared. There is co-operation between universities, as we have heard today, but the application process could be improved.

Parents choose primary and secondary education for their children, but it is when young people choose the next step for themselves that we are missing an opportunity. We do not have to wait for constitutional change. Incentivising and nurturing cross-Border study in all further education - we have heard about the disparity in post-leaving certificates, so could we not do something on a North-South basis in that regard? - including apprenticeships and even work experience, would pay dividends in the years to come. This is not just about creating payers of income tax. Consider the friendships that are made at that age, the career networks that are built and the understanding it would foster for whenever the constitutional question is asked.

I just wished to make a submission as a private citizen.