Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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438. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to have a bilateral meeting with his US counterpart, Ms. Betsy DeVos; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25666/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I have no plans to meet with Ms DeVos at this time.

The USA is a key international education market for Ireland's higher education institutions with close to 12,000 students coming to study here under the US Study Abroad programme every year. These connections are providing significant opportunities for our HEIs to build longer term partnerships and collaborations with US institutions.

My Department officials and Education Ireland engage on an ongoing basis with the US market and, on foot of this, the Secretary General recently attended an international education event in Philadelphia where he met the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Marie Royce, and her adviser. He also met with the Deputy Secretary of Post-Secondary and Higher Education of Pennsylvania during this visit.

Under our International Education Strategy, we will continue to build relations and partnerships with the American education system and its people.