Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The second issue I want to touch on relates to young people. We have a large number of young people who are now unemployed. We face a huge challenge over the next 12 months because many people, especially people who finished whatever training they were doing, would normally travel for 12 months or 18 months and then come back to Ireland to work or maybe they would stay away for two or three years. That is not now happening. They are all at home and their access to jobs is extremely restricted. Is there any proposal by the Department to look at this issue? How can we involve young people in businesses? For instance, yesterday I had to write a reference for a person who is only 22 years of age. She has already set up three companies which she has handed over in that they have moved on to further development. There is a large number of young people who have huge initiative, are extremely talented and are now extremely restricted in what they can do. Is the Department going to develop any programme to cater for that group, particularly over the next 12 months? It is going to be a huge challenge. There are people with huge talent out there. We need to use such talents and the country will benefit as a result.