Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the important things from the last five years, which was referred to by Senator Mullins already, was the growth in the number of people at work. It was one of the challenges faced by this Cabinet and the Government. It is a huge achievement to now have unemployment rates down to 8.6% and a huge growth in the number of people at work. It will not be too long before we have over 2 million people working. When we joined the European Union we had only 1 million people working back in the 1970s. However, we need to ensure that we continue along that path.

We have major challenges facing us no matter who is in government. By the time the incoming Government leaves office there will be over 100,000 more people over the age of 65. There will be more demand on pensions and on the health care sector. When one looks at the health care sector, 51% of all people in hospital are over the age of 65. Over the next 14 years the numbers of over 65s will increase from 600,000 currently to over 990,000. We will have huge demands in the health care area because of this change in demographics. In order to fund that we also have to have more people at work. It is not just about reducing the number of people who are unemployed, it is also about continuing to grow the number of people who are employed and available for employment.

I am very saddened that we have not made progress on the issue of people to whom we provide a comprehensive education but who, once they have finished in universities, are emigrating within a short time, particularly our junior doctors. We now have a major challenge in that area. There are problems when hospitals employ junior doctors under agency contracts and junior doctors are no longer getting the level of pay they should get for the work they do.They are not getting the same level of support to engage in further education and training. It is disappointing that no progress has been made in this area in the past four years. The new Government must prioritise this issue. As well as providing funding for education, we must also offer health service staff attractive employment conditions. This will convince them to stay in Ireland and further their education in the health sector and ensure we do not rely on overseas doctors for hospital and general practice services. The next Government must adopt this issue as a priority and Members of the next Seanad must continue to raise and work on it in the next five years.