Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I call on the Leader for a debate on the need for unity in Government. The news from yesterday shows that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, might have been looking for consensus with the Opposition parties, but he cannot even achieve it within the Government with his Taoiseach. It is now very clear that the Government lacks any type of coherent direction and that there is a marked lack of unity and a difference of purpose. This is yet another reason we need a general election urgently because it does not bode well for the budget. In this House we could usefully debate the need for unity in Government and the lack of direction we currently have.

I am sure Members will all want to join with me in welcoming the good news this morning of the rescue of the first few Chilean miners and the extremely and well thought out rescue operation that is under way. We wish them very well in taking out the remaining men. It reminds us, again of the unrelenting grimness of the economic news here, the lack of any good news in this country, while highlighting yet again the need for a change of Government, a change of direction and a new unity of purpose in a unified Administration, which is clearly not what we have at the moment.

I also call for a debate on third level education, as I have done many times before. We need a debate, and not just on the financing of third level education, which is critical with universities and colleges being seriously underfunded. We see our colleges and universities sliding downwards in international rankings and losing competitiveness at a time when these need to be maintained. We also need a debate on the future for graduates in Ireland. The Government said last year it would offer graduate placement programmes and training schemes. There was even talk of internships within Departments for graduates, but we have not seen any of those. At what stage are those proposals and can have a debate in the House in this regard? On a day when the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, is organising a national lobby, we need some clear answers from the Government about its plans for third level education. Otherwise, as USI has said, our graduates will just have two choices: emigration or the dole. Those were the choices we faced when I was in college in the 1980s and it is a very dark day when we see that time returning again for graduates and for young people generally.