Professor Ciar?n ? h?gartaigh:

Significant progress has been made on the number of medical places, although part of that relates to clinical and training places. Within the system, there is a desire to move on that. Part of it relates to investment, given in the case of some courses such as veterinary medicine and medicine, there is investment, especially capital investment, to be made to increase the number of places. There is a process now to increase the number of places in nursing, medicine and veterinary medicine, which the Deputy raised. She is correct; the danger for the island of Ireland in general is that if somebody leaves the country at undergraduate level, in particular, the evidence is they will remain there indefinitely. At postgraduate level, they are more likely to come back, but at undergraduate level, they will be abroad for three or four years and make a life there, and we lose people as a consequence. It is a significant issue that is broader than this one.

Without labouring the point, this comes back to investment, and it is not a cost but an investment. That is a critical aspect and we very much welcomed the report including that point. The committee could easily have disregarded that point but it is certainly an important part of the student experience.