Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to Senator Barrett. I wish I could share the enthusiasm and confidence of Senator Keane and others on the other side that Europe is somehow solving the problem of youth unemployment. In reality, Europe is making a complete hames of addressing the problem of youth unemployment and despite several initiatives, the youth unemployment rate - which is bad enough in this country - is soaring to over 50% in Spain, Portugal, Italy and other southern countries. If we are to solve youth unemployment in this country, we will have to try to do it ourselves, and I compliment the Government on the initiatives it is taking, notwithstanding the difficult period we are in.

I do have a gripe. There are a great many multinationals in this country constantly being presented as salvation in our economic problems. Why do these multinationals seem to have a high number of vacancies while not taking on graduates coming from third level colleges? They have stated that the companies cannot get experienced personnel but what is to stop the Government from imposing a quota for taking in graduates coming from third level colleges and training them? This is instead of having to go across the world to import workers into the country. We have one of the highest participation rates at third level in Europe at between 40% and 45%, when the European average is approximately 25% to 30%. I am sure Senator Barrett will correct me if I am wrong. Nevertheless, part of the reason we have a youth unemployment problem is that youths cannot get work in their own country and, as Senator Mac Conghail noted, those who feel they have an opportunity to find work abroad are emigrating.

A photograph appeared in the Irish Independent only two weeks ago, following London's defeat of Sligo in the Connacht championship. The caption included not only the names of the team but the occupations they held; some 12 of the 15 players were involved in the construction sector, and they were all Irish-born people who emigrated. These youths were plumbers, carpenters and civil engineers. The collapse has occurred in the construction sector since 2008 and there is a real need for the Government to upskill and retrain those people. I would love to get an answer on why some responsibility is not placed on multinationals by the Government to introduce some sort of a quota system for graduates coming out of college.