Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McGahon. When people look back on 2021, they will see it as a very significant year for making progress for the north east in respect of education, including higher education and the future of DkIT. It will be the year in which there was an agreed plan based on the vision, in which funding was put in place and in which the expert adviser was appointed.

I should have said in my comments on section 38 that there will be no blockages in my Department or the HEA in progressing any application that comes forward. In fairness to the HEA, it has a really good track record on this. It has had a very busy year of assessing technological university applications. I thank it for that.

My final point echoes the important point the Senator made on the shared island fund. I will be spending Sunday and Monday in the North having conversations about greater collaboration. There may be no institutes better positioned than those in Letterkenny and Dundalk to engage in cross-Border collaboration and co-operation. I am looking forward to having a conversation, when I visit Queen's, on interim measures that may be capable of being put in place to ensure greater student mobility north and south of the Border. The shared island fund, administered by the Department of the Taoiseach, is available for all collaborations. DkIT will not in any way miss out at this transition point. I really look forward to 2022. We can make a lot of progress for DkIT and the north east.