Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is entirely correct. He is in this House for a very long time and knows very well the different challenges that come with different stages of the economic cycle. I remember when I first got elected to this House to serve alongside him when we were dealing with an economy with 15% unemployment. The issue employers certainly were not bringing up with us was the difficulty of attracting staff. We are now in a situation of full employment and the highest number of people ever with a job in the country and therefore we cannot rest on our laurels. It is a much better problem to be in an economy with full employment, but there are still jobs that need to be filled. The Deputy is also correct that we are living in a much more globalised and competitive world. There are other issues like international tax rates, for example, where agreements have been settled, meaning the future economic and social well-being of a country will depend on its investment in its people, namely, on talent, on nurturing people and on recognising not everybody who needs to access the education system is just a school leaver, that more and more people will wish to change careers and more and more people will be in jobs which they think are secure today but that will be disrupted by technology in the years ahead. We need to be able to reach into business, especially our small and medium enterprises because they are perhaps not as well-resourced to deal with this challenge, to announce an SME incentivisation scheme to support businesses this year in upskilling and reskilling their workers.

We are presiding over a massive expansion of tertiary education in Ireland, but it is important we do that in an intelligent and targeted way, that we do it in the areas where there is a skills need for either our public services or industry we are trying to attract to and retain in the country and that we do it in ways that are accessible to all our citizens. We need more university places, more apprenticeships and more tertiary degrees and pathways between further education and higher education, as well as more opportunities for in-work training. Even this week, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and I launched new micro credentials for people who are in work. If you are in work, but need a new module of education, that has to provided perhaps in a blended or online way that you can do while holding down your job.

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