Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I will pick up on the point made by Deputy Naughten. If there is a no-deal Brexit at the end of March, the UK's participation in Erasmus will prove to be a difficulty. Obviously, we are working on every potential outcome and this legislation regardless of whether Brexit is disorderly or orderly. The Deputy also asked about the decline in numbers in terms of the North-South element. I raised this question during my first fortnight in the job. I have looked at those trends. Traditionally, many students from my county would have studied engineering in the likes of Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University in Jordanstown. That would have been a traditional route. Capacity is built around the IT sector. I know the likes of Letterkenny Institute of Technology in my county, Dundalk Institute of Technology or GMIT in the Deputy's county, which aspire to and are applying to become technological universities, have strengthened the choice available as well. I know many Irish students go to Europe. I am looking at the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, support we give to Bulgaria, which is more than 81,450. The Netherlands is the highest at 349,473, so there is a lot of movement of Irish students to Europe as well. The major piece is the number of students from Northern Ireland coming south. There is a piece of work that needs to be done there in terms of why that is happening. It is obviously down to choice - parental or student choice - but I would like to do a piece of work on that as to why that is happening. It would be important.