Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I am specifically talking about co-ordination between third level institutions here and in Northern Ireland. For instance, more than 40 years ago, the Washington Ireland Program was set up, whereby young people from both communities could work in Washington for a period of six or 12 months. Nothing like that appears to have been developed between our universities nor have any incentives been put in place for students doing three-, four- or five-year courses in Northern Ireland to spend one year in the South or for students in UCC, Limerick or wherever to spend a year there. Such a connection is extremely important. It is also about business connections and people having that connectivity with Northern Ireland when they go out into the workplace. Sufficient work has not been done on that. Could consideration be given to how we could work with our universities on that issue?