Professor Shane Kilcommins:

The institution has been there for just over 50 years. It was tucked in between Galway and Limerick. Those institutions go back to the 1840s.

The people of the mid-west region have fought very hard to create this university and it has been sustained by students and staff. There are more than 120,000 alumni and 2,000 staff in the institution. It is really creating life-enhancing opportunities for so many young people. One of the great things is that they are actually staying in the region now on that Atlantic corridor because of the opportunities and employability. As the Chairman has just spoken about, this has had significant implications for the university. We cannot sign off on our accounts. We cannot finish our annual governance statement. For US federal subsidies, we cannot sign off on those accounts. It is also the demoralising impact it has had on our staff. It was referred to at the outset by the Chairman. Our students-----