Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week, I raised the issue of the business of the House. At that time, the Leader assured us that administrative and technical issues relating to the passage of legislation through the Dáil had resulted in the lack of legislation going through this House, particularly on Thursdays. We are now faced, yet again, with a Thursday which is somewhat light in this respect. I do not want to blame the Leader personally in this regard because we all know from experience the difficulty in getting Departments to pass on legislation here. However, I do not believe it is in the best interests of this House that we should be sitting on a Thursday morning and that we have only got a visit, distinguished as it may be. I would be grateful if the Leader could outline what his plans are and what efforts he is making to ensure that we have a much more robust legislative model in this House on sitting days.

It would be churlish of me not to acknowledge that there has been, at long last, a glimmer of hope on the jobs front. The most recent figures announced in the last 24 hours indicate that the rate of unemployment is slowing but, more importantly, that the rate of employment has increased. An extra 1,200 have been added to the workforce. It would be opportune if the Leader were to arrange for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, to attend the House to flesh out much of what was announced in the most recent jobs plan. I think this is the fifth variant of the jobs plan.

I am focusing in particular on the proposal that 2,000 graduates would find work in that context. The evidence suggests that the vast majority of those out of work are unskilled. The Government has introduced a variety of different measures to bring people back into further education and retraining. However, the evidence is that many multinationals are not employing graduates from our third-level colleges; they are looking for experience. In the last day or two, there have been public pronouncements to the effect that there are plenty of jobs available in the IT and high-technology sectors but that applicants need to have three, four or five years' experience. I do not believe this jobs plan will address the real issue of new graduates whose education has been financed by the State yet who must emigrate because they cannot get jobs.

I also wish to raise the issue of hydraulic fracturing. A group called Love Leitrim, which is an umbrella group of anti-fracking community organisations, is due to attend Leinster House today. They are totally opposed to the whole concept of hydraulic fracturing or fracking as it is called, which is the extraction of shale gas by a method using chemicals and water under high pressure. I ask the Leader to arrange for the relevant line Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, to attend the House for a debate on fracking. I am not critical of what the Minister is doing; I believe he is doing the right thing. He has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to engage in an exhaustive study of the environmental impact and other aspects of fracking, particularly in my own part of the country and in County Clare. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, should attend this House to reassure us that he will not give exploration licences to those who have applied for them. Today is the closing date for such applications, which is the relevance of the group coming up from Leitrim today. The Minister should outline the Government's proposals on fracking. He should also reiterate that he will not take any action in this regard, or provide any licences, unless or until there is conclusive proof that there will be no adverse environmental impact on the land proposed to be explored. In that context, it would be timely if the Minister were to attend the House so he could also provide a wider view of Government energy policy.