Mr. James Brennan:

One could argue that we were lazy but we are now moving much further and faster to address the matter. Significant effort has been invested in developing links with Northern Ireland but the biggest problem is misperception. When I was recently in King's Hall representing IT Sligo, a group of students came around the corner and, on seeing our sign, said they were not planning to study IT. I had to explain that we teach all sorts of subjects, including business, science and engineering. In regard to being mixed up with further education in Northern Ireland, we have sought to link with further education colleges. We are in a process of mapping how people can come from further education to advanced entry level in courses in science, engineering and business. The CAO system and the misconception of what we do are major difficulties.