Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, is working on apprenticeships and I welcome that. I welcome also the Minister's commitment in regard to Magee College and the great co-operation between Letterkenny Institute and Magee College. Having listened to the director of the former and the president of the latter, the level of co-operation taking place in the north west is heartening. In the north east, similarly, there has been very good co-operation between Dundalk Institute of Technology, Queen's University and Ulster University, which have undertaken research projects. Dundalk Institute of Technology and Ulster University carried out a large project on renewable energy, while Queen's University and Dundalk Institute of Technology conducted a project on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. What is already in place can be built on.

One interesting project that Dundalk Institute of Technology carried out, and it might be one to which the Department could give some consideration, sought to improve pathways from further education to higher education, including on a cross-Border basis. I was the chairman of the first board of the then Cavan College of Further Studies, and it gives me great pleasure and a sense of attainment when I see the numbers going through that college and the people getting a pathway to higher education or to good work. We need to maximise the potential of further education.

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