Dr. Anne Taheny:

I will comment briefly and answer some of the issues raised by Deputy Colreavy. He has made some very valid points in terms of the changing era in higher education on both sides of the Border. We are now at the stage where there is a realisation that stand-alone institutions are no longer going to be the order of the day as we move forward and that we will all be looking at new ways of doing things and certainly new ways of exploring the sharing of resources to the mutual benefit of collaborating institutions. The Deputy's points were very valid. We have answered his point on the Gaeilge issue.

Returning to the issue of funding, if and when we have specific projects, we will be more than happy to bring those back to this committee and if there are opportunities to seek its advice on how to move forward with them, we will be more than happy to do that.

Senator White has left the room but I want to thank her for her positive comments about St. Angela's College and the University of Ulster.