Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I congratulate Deputy Quinn on proposing this amendment in the House and the Government, through the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, for accepting it and tabling an amendment in the Seanad. It significantly strengthens the Bill for the Minister of the day to have such oversight in working with the alliance to ensure there is clarity on the question of accountancy practices and the usefulness of the funds that are in place. The inclusion of this amendment is a significant improvement. I congratulate Deputy Quinn and the Minister of State on amending the Bill in this bipartisan way.

I wish to make two comments. We have a tremendous opportunity to tap into the potential of international education and to create in this country a destination for many international students who want to come and study here. Last week I produced a paper on behalf of my party which highlights the potential over a five-year period - similar to what has been done in New Zealand and in Britain - whereby we could virtually double the number of students coming to this country and double the yield in that respect. At present the yield accruing is €900 million made up of €500 million on the English language side and €400 million in higher education. There is no reason we could not achieve that over a five-year period. The potential for extra jobs is enormous.

We have a tremendous location. We are an English speaking country in Europe and ours is a safe community. We have diaspora not only in the United State but throughout the world, as Deputy Quinn said, comprising second generation Irish people in the United States in particular. We need to market our country.

This fund is good for our country, for employment and for universities. I spoke to the president of UCC some time ago and that university is ahead of the game here. Some 10% of its total student cohort is made up of international students. The main benefit to be gained from such a measure for a university is not only monetary but that of the participation in tutorials of international students alongside our students and they being part of the same examination process and upping standards for our students. With the George Mitchell scholarship fund, which emanated from the Northern Ireland peace talks, we have managed to put in place a scholarship programme for American students. We need to consider if we could put in place a scholarship programme for the Asian, Chinese or the Indian markets, which would result in our having ambassadors who would come to this country, obtain opportunities through higher education and then return home and sell Ireland indirectly in their home countries.

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