Mr. Paul Hannigan:

The further education cluster I referred to, which has four partners involved, has been in place for a number of years at this stage. It was ahead of the work on tertiary education being done in the Republic of Ireland at the moment. There is more to do in that space. As regards all-island apprenticeships specifically, there are barriers that need to be taken down. There are differences between the two systems that need to be examined. There is an openness to do that and funding by the Government for places in higher education in Northern Ireland can be repeated in further education as well. However, we need to watch the unintended consequences and ensure we do not fund Republic of Ireland students to be in a competitive situation with the Republic of Ireland colleges and take places that would normally be taken up by others. There are unintended consequences that could arise but there is real potential in terms of the partners who are already there and what they want to achieve.