Professor Vincent Cunnane:

To the Deputy's point on the ETBs, every single institution here has long term relationships with their ETBs and several ETBs in their regions. There is an absolute progression in a standardised way from finishing in the ETB and coming with a rite of passage and a right to come to the technological university. All of us have seen students come through. There is now the National Tertiary Office which deals with this issue. We have introduced new tertiary programmes run between the ETBs and the technological universities. These are bedding in and proving successful. One of the key highlights for the technological universities is the relationship we have with the ETBs and with SOLAS and others through the apprenticeship programme. There is very much an integrated tertiary system that allows a student to progress all the way from coming into the ETB to finishing with a PhD in the technological university. We have examples of that, which are heartening.