Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I very strongly share Deputy Barrett’s view on experience. As a society, not just in Ireland but around the world, we do not value experience and corporate knowledge. Unless people are putting stuff up on Facebook and tweeting, and all this type of social media stuff that is governing too many people's lives today, there is not the respect or appreciation for experience, skills and knowledge that is built up over years by a person through their profession or trade. I am sure there are plenty of people leaving jobs through natural retirement with very important corporate knowledge that is not in a file. I am not saying people omitted to leave notes on a file but society does not value knowledge that is built up through interaction at meetings and participation in work to the extent that it should. I do not know how that trend could be counteracted but we should be cognisant of the value of the corporate knowledge, the skills and experiences.