Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I support the calls for a debate on the role of young people in Irish society and how they are treated. The only options available to young people at present, while the unemployment rate is so high, are education or emigration. We must tread carefully with regard to education. There is a tipping point beyond which things could get really bad for young people. Yes, invite the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, to the House as quickly as possible so we can discuss rumours of huge numbers of redundancies among teachers, caps on student numbers and grants for students. Education is a right that we must guard; it has served us well.

I wish to follow up on Senator Feargal Quinn's comments. Jobs are not created by governments but by employers and entrepreneurs. That is the reason I was so careful in my remarks yesterday. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, must reconsider her proposal to charge employers for sick pay for their employees. That would mean the employers would have to pay twice when staff are out of work. First, they would lose the person's performance and possibly have to replace the person and, second, if they had to pay sick pay, it would be unbearable.