Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I suggest that if a working group is to be set up, it could look at how we can make this Seanad, which will run for the period of this Government, even more successful. If this is to be the last Seanad, and I hope it is not, let it be the best by a mile, not just by an inch or two. We have a wonderful Leader in Senator Cummins and we have a great team on all sides of the House. We can certainly go out with a bang, if that is to happen.

More fundamentally in many ways, I was on Facebook on my way to the House today and I posted a comment about tomorrow being the longest day of the year. A comment came back that it is going to be the shortest day of the year in Australia. The reality is that thousands of our young people are in Australia because they cannot get work in this country. We had a very successful initiative on job creation some time ago from Senator Mullins and it is an issue that is worth putting on the agenda on a permanent basis. We should put time aside to gather ideas from the general public, who could come to the House to air their views from time to time, perhaps once every three or six months, on how jobs can be created in what is an evolving and, hopefully, improving economic environment. There is merit in having a jobs initiative day once every three months in the House where we would look at the fundamentals of job creation. In my view, the only way we will get this country back on its feet is by getting people back to work.