Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome the call for a debate on early school leavers. It is also important to point out that the statistics produced by the ESRI are not startling. We are well aware that people leave school early and it will always be an issue. In Donegal during the 1980s and 1990s young girls left school at the age of 16 because of the attraction of earning money at Fruit of the Loom in Buncrana. The fact that people will leave school early was acknowledged by the National Economic and Social Forum and cited in the document it produced this month. It is important to read that document.

People will leave school early to enter vulnerable job sectors, such as manufacturing, where they exist. The critical point to make is that it is necessary to improve the education and talents of those people while they are in the vulnerable job market. Today's reality is that early school leavers, predominantly young males, leave school early to enter the vulnerable job market in the construction sector. What we should do——