Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Specifically on that point, as Professor O'Brennan is aware, I worked on the blue star programme for the first five years of its creation and it is a lovely programme. I am going to visit a blue star school on Monday. It is the national school I attended. I know Deputy Howlin has spoken to schools and Deputy Harkin definitely has. I have visited schools Deputy Harkin has spoken to. It is great. The only programme in existence for secondary schools is the EUROSCOLA programme which is funded by the Michael Sweetman Education Trust. It is open to those studying for the leaving certificate applied programme so it is a bit different. It culminates in a week in Strasbourg for the winning children and teachers. There is a difference between the EU awareness produced by the blue star programme and moving on to EU careers which we are discussing today.

The great question when we talk about secondary school subjects is how they apply to further study and, more importantly, the workplace. The challenge is to get the notion of jobs in Europe into secondary schools via the new politics course, but also via elements of every course. As someone who wanted to work in Europe, I know there was no information about it and no awareness of it. It was seen as distant and if people were not fluent in French, it was not for them and we all know that is not necessarily true.

Professor O'Brennan mentioned working with the relevant teachers and guidance counsellors, but among the great untapped areas are the European Youth Parliament and model United Nations for young students who show an aptitude outside the classroom for the kind of skills that lend themselves to careers in the European institutions, wider civil service, NGOs and public policy positions . These extracurricular opportunities rely on the strength of the student participants and that is great but it is only for a year or two at a time. They move on to whatever else at that point. We need a formalised setting such as the university visits Professor O'Brennan mentioned of the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs. What can be done at second level? MEPs and Oireachtas Members go to blue star schools at a national school level, which is great, but how do we then do that at second level because it is not only about the subject but about driving the message that this is a career path for people?

We see a lot of work on girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, subjects. The Chair did a lot of work on that in my constituency with some of the big tech companies when he was Minister for Education and Skills. It is key to plant the seeds at the age of 15, 16 or 17 that this is an extremely accessible career path rather than people saying at 24 this is beyond them because they are not fluent in French. It has always been more difficult at second level than at national school level because the subjects are different. The key is not necessarily in the classroom but in the extracurricular activities for which there are clear structures but they need to be backed up by permanent operatives, for want of a better word.