Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government gave a clear commitment, as did the previous Government, to ensuring that Northern Ireland is never left behind and we are going to honour that commitment in every way we can. I am not in any way disputing the valid points the Deputy made, but I welcome the fact that under the current agreement it is envisaged that the UK, and therefore Northern Ireland, will have access to Horizon 2020 as associate members. That would be a good outcome. I hope that the Deputy can see from my answer today, but more importantly from our actions, that the Government is not standing idly by in respect of research or collaboration. We do not just want to continue doing what we were doing with Northern Ireland or the UK. We want to do more in the higher education and research spaces. To his credit, the Taoiseach's allocation of that €40 million pot from the shared island fund to directly fund research collaborations North and South is innovative and it has been well received. Equally, the commitments we have made under New Decade, New Approach regarding the Magee campus of Ulster University and the expansion of the university there, which is an issue Deputy Conway-Walsh and I discuss regularly, is another tangible example of our wish to do more. While I will leave it to the Minister for Foreign Affairs to engage at EU level, my Department will continue to explore every option to collaborate more and more.

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