Mr. Colm Markey:

I think the response will be at two levels. We have to look at Europe's place on the world stage and whether it be migration or dealing with economic circumstances of people in other parts of the world, Europe has to play a bigger part on that stage in supporting and giving people opportunity elsewhere. That is part of what we have to do. Whether that involves an element of migration or not will have to be looked at.

There is another fundamental issue about supporting families, which the Senator talked about. We have to support people's choice of lifestyles and facilitate such choice. The pandemic has taught us a lot about people valuing other priorities that may not be just economic, such as time and family life. We have to do more to support people in their family lives. That allows people the opportunity if they choose to have family and makes it easier for them to do so.

There is no doubt we are facing a demographic cliff and the economic challenges of that. We have to ask why we are facing it and why people are choosing not to have bigger families or whatever. As part of that, we have to look at supporting how we work, including remote working, which we all talk about in this day and age. Childcare, for instance, is extortionate in this country. I have two children. One is four and a half and the other is two and a half. I am well aware that across Europe these issues are there. It is about a broader picture of how we support people in the lifestyles they have and the choices they make. If they want to have bigger families, we have to support them in terms of childcare. We have to support women in their role in the workplace and the space created to allow all parents, in particular women, to be facilitated if they choose to go down a family route.We are not doing enough to support that and it would make a difference.