Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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From my own perspective, it is certainly welcome that legislation is being brought forward to deal with those who are on SUSI maintenance grants in the UK. They will know there is certainty in respect of the finance for continuing their education. We did a stakeholder engagement in 2017 with a number of organisations and third level institutions on the possible impact of Brexit. Two years later, we know a lot more in some ways but not a lot more in others. In 2016, there were 12,000 Irish students in the UK and 2,000 in Northern Ireland. In a difficult scenario, what would our capacity be in the Republic of Ireland for dealing with an extra 14,000 students? That question is very concerning when we see our third level institutions creaking at the seams at the moment. That leads us on to the concern about student accommodation, which is very difficult in its own right, particularly in Dublin. Have the Minister or the Minister of State any thoughts on that?

Aside from the question of SUSI grants and capacity in the light of Brexit, the whole issue of student mobility, visas and residential permits is an important one that we need to look at.

In terms of international education programmes, I agree there are possible opportunities for Ireland. Grant Thornton published a report on international education with respect to Dublin but a report certainly should be commissioned regarding possibilities across the country, given what the IDA Ireland has referred to in terms of opportunities outside Dublin. It would be a way of helping to support colleges outside Dublin. That is an important area to examine. In England in 2014, €1 billion was drawn down under Horizon 2020, which funded 9,000 researchers. That is quite incredible. If we in Ireland upped our game in terms of being able to attract that type of funding, it could lead to great dividends for us. It was only when Chuck Feeney, through Philanthropy Ireland, gave us a very large tranche of funding a number of years ago that we were able to get to where we are at now, which is quite a high rating. I believe we are rated 12th in the world but prior to that we were rated extremely low. I would be interested to hear the Ministers' observations in that regard. The Ministers might now respond to the last four questions.