Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with the Deputy. As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, one of the key areas where we can do a great deal more to embed peace and to try to create economic prosperity, well-being, good jobs and skills is in the cross-Border area. It makes sense, for example, to undertake medical education. Without deviating too much from the question, it makes sense that doctors working in Letterkenny should be able to access the medical school in North West Regional College. I have stood in the new medical school in Ulster University, Derry. It is state of the art. It makes sense. Both myself and the Minister for Health are trying to arrive at a point where we can do all-island medical education.

It makes sense for apprenticeships to be done on an all-island basis. This year we will see cross-Border apprenticeship programmes happening for the first time. I want the National Tertiary Office to be seen not as a top-down diktat kind of office. It is the opposite. It is a fund to encourage people to pitch into and draw down from.

It is a structure to prompt the regions to say what ideas they have about how they can join up education in the various regions. They can then come to us for the funding and support to help make that happen. We have already seen some examples of that with ATU Letterkenny and the new courses this year.

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