Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of long-term planning. All the evidence suggests that there is a major turn in the economy and that growth rates will vary from 4.5% to 6.1% over the next 12 months, which is very welcome. Long-term planning is an issue we need to address seriously. The media have not commented in recent times on those between 20 and 30 years of age. In the past five years the number of people in that age group has decreased from 755,000 to 549,000. At the same time, the category of those aged over 65 years has increased from 535,000 to 585,000. A growing number of people are retired. We need to talk about long-term planning in regard to our younger and older populations. We need to have a debate on the type of country we want to have in the next ten or 20 years. At the moment we are discussing day-to-day planning, but we need to discuss long-term planning. We have not had a debate in the House on that issue, and particularly on how we can accommodate the numbers leaving and coming into the country. The numbers will increase. I ask the Leader for a debate on that matter.