Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

On education and the need to develop the knowledge and innovation economy, during a downturn one of the best activities in which one can engage is to invest in one's education. While I support the extension of the back to education allowance and the Skillnets programme, Ireland has large gaps in the area of high-end graduates. Google had to hire 20 high-end graduates abroad because the skills it required were lacking here. We need to have more students studying higher level mathematics in order that we can increase high level jobs. We are failing, in particular, in the area of innovation.