Mr. Tim Conlon:

Can I comment briefly on that? It is interesting in terms of the way in which we fund research, and the HEA also funds research in some of our programmes, such as the North-South Research Programme. The sustainability plan and the sustainability of the project post the funding cycle are also important. As Professor Carey mentioned, Ireland is very strong in that in the areas of the arts, humanities and social sciences. We seed fund projects for, say, a three- to five-year horizon. Then, they will go off to Europe and they will bring funding back. That is a testament to the quality of research. I take the point about the core funding, but this should also of course be a matter of encouraging our system to go out there and look for other sources. It validates the quality of the what is being done across all disciplines when that level of funding comes back in support of projects in which the State has seed funded, or in which it has initially invested.