Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh. I wish to assure her that my position on North-South is not just to list all we are doing and all that we have done. I genuinely share her view and am more convinced by the day from my engagement North-South, and from my visit to Queen's University Belfast where I gave a guest lecture over the summer months outlining my vision for an all-Island approach to higher education. It makes sense. I agree with the Deputy that regardless of one's political persuasion, the community one comes from in the North, on an island as geographically small as the island of Ireland it makes sense to work together just like we are in healthcare. As I said in my opening statement I also believe it makes sense beyond education. It makes sense in terms of embedding peace, in terms of getting to know each other and having a better understanding. There have been a couple of developments. The Higher Education Authority Act 2022, as I am delighted to now call it because the HEA Bill is now the HEA Act if anyone is wondering, is now the law of the land. We will move to commence that. We engaged on Committee and Report Stages on this legislation. It is a very clear function now for the HEA in terms of the promotion of cross-Border collaboration on higher education. It is now a function of the Higher Education Authority, very clearly and explicitly in that law.

Second, we are currently carrying out research to try to move beyond the anecdote in terms of student mobility and why people come or do not come North-South or South-North. I do not mean this in any way regarding Deputy Conway-Walsh's comments because she could legitimately throw it at me too. We are doing this research through the HEA to try to get under the bonnet as to what is going on in student mobility. We have the common travel area but why is student mobility somewhat stuck North-South and indeed east-west? We hope to publish that-----