Professor Ciar?n ? h?gartaigh:

I will take them. I thank Senator O'Loughlin for her questions.

On the North-South Ministerial Council, we are keen on that. This issue is not currently within its scope but we should encourage that to be. We will be working with the Ministers, North and South, now that Stormont is back. That is an important piece.

I know the students have been talking in the earlier session about awareness and a one-stop shop. Again, I completely agree that. That is something that could be invested in. The CAO does provide a certain amount of information and maybe one could highlight it separately around Northern Ireland. On the CAO website, there is more information around that which I think could usefully be highlighted more. Guidance counsellors are critical in that context. Working with them and making them more aware and open to universities, North and South, and representing universities, North and South, ensuring mobility both ways would be important.

Finally, the healthcare question is in some cases an important one. There are some elements there. For example, in speech and language therapy, there are elements of what is taken in Northern Ireland is not available in the Republic and vice versa, so there is not necessarily the mobility needed. That is something that, via the HSE and maybe the North-South Ministerial Council, we could work on. That is primarily a registration issue, that is, the Medical Council, etc, rather than universities. On the North-South Ministerial Council, that is a ministerial decision and we would be very keen that that be immobilised as soon as possible.