Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank the Deputy for the good work we have all been doing together on the promotion of cross-border education and viewing the island of Ireland in relation to student mobility and opportunities. The establishment of the technological university in the north west, the Atlantic Technological University, ATU, presents a great opportunity in relation to Magee Campus of the University of Ulster and the commitments of the Irish and British Governments under New Decade, New Approach. We are certainly working on that. Tomorrow I will be in Queens University in Northern Ireland, continuing to promote the message that we believe it simply makes sense to work on some issues together. Education provides a great opportunity to embed peace, advance progress and provide opportunities to the next generation to work together on some big solutions to big issues that do not care about day-to-day politics. I think we all share that view.

I cannot accept the amendment. I worked with the Deputy on Committee Stage and we expanded section 9(1)(o) relating to co-operation and collaboration with the higher education sector to include the provision of student places and the enrolment of students. The Deputy made a compelling case that when talking about cross-border we should not just talk about it at a high level but we should also look at it specifically in relation to success, having a metric around provision of student places and enrolment of students. We expanded section 9(1)(o) to include that reference on Committee Stage and therefore I do not deem the new amendment necessary.

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