Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure Deputy Harkin that the momentum currently behind the Connacht-Ulster Alliance, CUA, for GMIT and for Mayo, Donegal and Killybegs, as Deputy Pringle will also be anxious to point out, is full steam ahead. It made considerable progress in the back end of last year and they will continue that work. It will be an important project.

There has always been an historical link between Letterkenny Institute of Technology and Ulster University Magee. There has also been much collaboration with the higher level institutes in the north west. There is an historical relationship there. We have a memorandum of understanding, which we lodged within the Department. There is absolutely no reason why one cannot have a dual process happening there with regard to collaboration on a cross-Border basis on one level and then building towards a technological university at another level.

If we continue with those relationships on a cross-Border basis, it will benefit Sligo, Mayo and Galway as well as Letterkenny.

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