Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One of the key elements in securing Ireland's future is the proper investment in our human potential. Education and training is key. The Government unfortunately has not given education and training anything like the priority it should. In an employment crisis one of the last areas in which we should be making this type of cut is education and training. A key part of the answer to unemployment and disadvantage is to expand educational and training opportunities and play to our strengths. An example is the problem we are having trying to fill vacancies in the high-tech sector. Companies in the area are filling vacancies from abroad because of the lack of suitably qualified Irish graduates. Last year 2,000 of these jobs went unfilled.

We are constantly told how a company has announced X number of jobs and another has announced Y number of jobs. The expectation is that these jobs will be filled by people who are on the unemployment register. However, up to 2,000 positions at the company in question were filled by people from outside the State.

In yesterday's edition of The Irish Timesa well written article by Dan Hayden explained how IT education at second level in Ireland was far behind that in other countries. Our teachers are not sufficiently qualified to introduce new learning models to make the best use of technology. The national curriculum is far behind that in the likes of South Korea. This is deplorable. There is no point in rolling out broadband to second level schools if the curriculum is not in place or the schools do not have the computer equipment to take advantage of it.

One key point in dealing with our economic problems is that we need to get people back to work. This is absolutely essential if we are going to pay for public services without imposing significant new taxes, particularly on the low to middle income groups. Education and training have to focus on what they require. We need to be examining the skills that are deficient in the economy. We need to ensure those unemployed or in the education system will be filling new jobs, too.

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