Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have regularly raised the issue of how technology is changing the nature of everything we do. In that context, I hope we can have a debate on the future of work and the need to constantly upskill and reskill our citizens. I say this in the context of the recent Facebook announcement that it is going to allow staff who are based here to work remotely. We have seen consumer trends shift dramatically towards e-commerce during the pandemic and last week's G7 communique from Cornwall on securing future prosperity referenced collaboration from cyberspace to outer space as well as protecting our planet. The World Economic Forum last month suggested that a number of the new jobs that will be much in demand over the next few years include director of remote work, algorithm bias auditor, tidewater architect and human machine teaming manager. There was also, interestingly, a report by the Law Society of England and Wales, which may cause some concern for colleagues in this House. It predicted that within the next decade, because of advances in artificial intelligence, we will all have access to lawyers for free and that they will operate in a way very similar to Siri.

I welcome this morning's announcement by the Minister and Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science of more than 10,000 Springboard scheme places in areas where there are specific skills shortages in the economy. My former colleagues in the Higher Education Authority published a report on the difficulties experienced by mature students in accessing further and higher education, many of which are financial. Given how quickly we are going to see technology changing all of our lives, we need a full debate on how to upskill and reskill our citizens to enable them to avail of new opportunities.