Mr. Denis Cummins:

I wish to add to Dr. Murphy's comments on how the institutes engage with industry. In his opening comments Dr. Murphy gave the example of Dundalk Institute of Technology, where we developed a programme in computing for the health-care industry. We have industry advisory boards that operate at the level of programme boards. We have also identified other potential ICT programmes in areas such as green computing, computing for the aviation industry, ambient computing and specialist computing for the entertainment industries. They came as a result of the direct engagement we had.

Senator Clune and Deputy Calleary asked about languages. It is true that the numbers applying to do language options are very small in our colleges. As Mr. Boland mentioned, they tend to be combined with other subjects. So we offer computing with languages and business with languages, rather than an intensive programme in language itself. A key factor is that in order to become really proficient in language the student needs to spend some time in a country where the language is spoken, ideally through an Erasmus programme either for a semester or for a year. We have difficulties in encouraging students to travel. Irish students are less mobile than their European counterparts. It is our experience and the general experience of colleges that we receive more students than we send out. I believe there are financial and other issues.

Senator Clune mentioned PayPal, which is based in Dundalk a couple of hundred metres from the campus. That company has difficulty in recruiting and its chief executive, Louise Phelan, has stated that it only wants to recruit native speakers, a point reiterated by Deputy Calleary. We have been able to help the company recruit because we have many international students from China and other parts of Asia as well as European students. However, they are not Irish people. So it is a challenge to get more students to study languages to a level at which they can be proficient - I do not know how one gets to the level of being a native speaker other than by living in the country.

Senator Cullinane asked about the all-Ireland approach. We have worked very closely with the University of Ulster and Dublin City University, mainly on innovation and enterprise support programmes and research. We have a number of initiatives in areas such as renewable energy and ageing. However, they would mainly be enterprise supports. The big challenge for us is to recruit students from Northern Ireland. There is very little student mobility at present from Northern Ireland. Given Dundalk's location that is clearly something we are interested to change as is the case for the institutes in Letterkenny and Sligo. The issue is addressed in our strategic plan. The numbers at present are very small - we have more students from Beijing than from Newry, which gives an indication of the challenge.

This year I was very encouraged in that for the first time students from a Protestant school in Northern Ireland came to our open day. There are obviously historical and cultural issues that need to be addressed, and now is a better time than in the past. However, there are also some very practical barriers for students coming from Northern Ireland. The A-level course is a different model from the leaving certificate and the first undergraduate programmes here are typically designed to build on a leaving certificate, which is generally one year shorter in terms of a cycle and A-levels tend to specialise at that stage.

Another practical difficulty is how students from the North are scored. The scoring system does not favour students from Northern Ireland. The best student from Northern Ireland with, for example, three A-levels, can only score a maximum of 450 points whereas a student from the Republic can score 600 points and there are other practical barriers. However, we are interested in recruiting more students not just for the economic benefits but also for the better understanding of different cultures that would result from students mixing and studying together.