Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I concur with a number of the points made by Mr. Doorley. As I understand it, we are trying to tackle the fact that 20 million are unemployed across the European Union. A wonderful aspect of the Union is that attention is paid to the social dimension of the development of European societies. I welcome the fact that a debate is taking place in Europe and that the 28 national parliaments are in a position to engage with that debate. This is a very complex issue. The 28 national parliaments and the European Parliament are using various formulae in respect of benchmarking, etc., and are creating indicators to assess how they should act. The briefing notes presented to the committee state that the Employment Social Policy, Health and the Consumer Affairs Council, EPSCO, considers that reaching alarm thresholds should not trigger any automatic actions or measures. To be fair, the European Union clearly recognises that youth unemployment and long-term unemployment are major social problems and has created the youth guarantee in response. If the EU understands that the problem of youth unemployment should be targeted and has provided €6 billion in funding to combat it, why can it not put in place some form of mechanism that would kick in when alarming levels of social alienation, exclusion or marginalisation are reached? This matter needs to be teased out.

The EU is trying to measure education, training and protection of human health in the social exclusion field. I do not like to read the rankings relating to the educational standards in schools. By anyone's standards, my constituency, Dublin South-Central, is a very challenging one vis-à-vis social exclusion. Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard in the constituency were both targeted under the EU's URBAN I and URBAN II programmes and the people who live there benefited immensely as a result. The rankings to which I refer indicate that 50% of students from Loreto College in Crumlin now go on to third level. Leaving aside the debate about private fee-paying schools, I am under the impression - our guests can correct me if I am wrong - that we seem to be doing very well in the context of children, even those from working class communities, gaining access to further education. I presume this is one of the indicators of whether we are doing things right or wrong. Do our guests agree that we have made major strides in the context of providing a good educational base in working class communities throughout the country and in facilitating access to third level?