Professor Deirdre Heenan:

A free healthcare system is an avaricious user of resources. The more money put in, the system just seems to take more and more money. On the point that we cannot do anything in the short-term, I disagree. I am of the view that we can agree in principle. When we agree that collaboration is a principle that we want to explore fully, then we can move forward with an overarching vision and say, "We do not have all the evidence, but we do have evidence to know that we can create economies of scale on an island of this size." We absolutely know that. Professor Bengoa was quite amused in a strange way when he came to look at the healthcare system in the North. He said we had more pilots than Easy Jet, and he was right. For some reason, three pilots a year was our favourite number. He said that in his experience rapid research reviews could take place in 12 weeks. In 12 weeks, from start to finish, we can have a pretty good understanding of what is going on, if that is our aim and objective. It is a question of "How long is a piece of string?" If we have an agreed objective and ambition, change actually could happen fairly quickly.

I am sorry, I have twice ignored a question about Magee campus. We are delighted to see the funding for Magee campus. We know that when people study somewhere, they are much more likely to make their homes and start their families there. That is entirely what we want. We have regional disparities in the North. However, I would say from experience that people who are coming out qualified to work in the health service are looking around and that they think they will go to Australia or elsewhere. We do not even have pay parity with the rest of the UK. It is not an attractive proposition. We have to work to make sure that the jobs that are available to graduates are attractive enough to keep them and ensure that we benefit from their skills.