Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. This is a great debate on an important subject if for no other reason than it puts in the spotlight this incredibly important issue. Young people are not just young people today. They are the people who will occupy this House is a few years' time. In a few decades' time, they will be running this economy and country and contributing in businesses, lecture theatres, classrooms, hospitals and courtrooms all over this country. We can never place too great a value on the importance of providing what we need to provide for them.

In the context of this debate, it is important to acknowledge that life is not easy in this country for young people today. We should be doing everything we can to make it easier at every step along the way. I note that people now come back to Ireland. We have net inward migration. People are coming here. Other people, of course, leave. I left and came back. As Senator McGahon said, there are many legitimate and good reasons for people to leave Ireland. We hope that most of them, if not all, will return. There are only three children in my family and my two sisters live abroad. Edel lives in London and Emily has just moved from Bern to The Hague. We all hope they will return home. They have ambitions to do so within the next couple of years. I note there is now net return to Ireland, which is positive.

Mention has been made of the budget measures that were put in place yesterday specifically for young people. We can talk about those measures. I could list them but I do not know if I need to do that because people have heard them already. Yesterday's budget was a positive one for young people, as it was for many sectors of society. Senator Buttimer may already have made this point more eloquently than I can, but Ireland is vastly improved even compared with when I was a young person, which I like to think was not very long ago. It is a more progressive, accepting and inclusive place, a better place to live now than it was ten, 20 or 30 years ago. We are improving all the time. That does not for a moment mean that things are perfect. It does not mean that we should not keep trying to make it better, and to make sure it is more inclusive, progressive and accepting, and easier for people to live here. We can celebrate our progress but we can also use it as an inspiration to say we can do more and better. I would like to think that people who are young in Ireland today, irrespective of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, family background, ability, personal health, mental health or whatever else, are in a better position today than they would have been decades ago.

That does not mean there are no problems. Housing has been mentioned. I have been in UCD twice in as many weeks and I know from speaking to students there just how difficult it is for them to find accommodation. UCD is better off than many third level institutions around the country. The Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT, in my own area in Dún Laoghaire has supported a private development of student housing nearby at Baker's Corner, which will be great if and when it is built. It is years away from being built. Even then, it will still be expensive for people. An issue mentioned by Senator Cummins was the cost of off-campus private student accommodation. That must be looked at by the Government in the longer term to ensure it is affordable and accessible to everyone.

Senator Clonan mentioned his son, and I am particularly well acquainted with his family, being a neighbour. I know well what he has gone through. I know that senseless and unthinking measures have been in place in the past. They have been corrected by Senator Clonan and I hope I worked with him to ensure, for example, the Minister, Deputy Harris, dealt with one particular issue of which I am aware. That is the way it should be. When we see these things that do not work and are not there for a good reason, we should take conclusive and swift action to correct them. Not everything can be fixed and made better overnight. There are, however, many little things that need to change for the better and to be brought in tandem with the things which work well. That is the attitude we have to take.

I know the Minister of State will be communicating to his Government colleagues that the message from this House is we need to do better, although we have done a great deal. A particular phrase comes to mind in that regard and I will not trot it out here. However, we have done a great deal to develop this country as a place where young people want to be. Young people are returning to this country. Non-Irish people are coming here to make their lives in this country. I am not only talking about people who are forced to come here because of the circumstances in their own countries. Other people choose Ireland for their future, which is a good thing. We need to strive every day, week and year, through every budget and piece of legislation that goes through, to ensure we are building on the success of the past and dealing with the issues that young people face to make it as easy as possible for them.As I said at the start, this is a great motion because, if nothing else, it is a spotlight. As other Members have said, we will disagree on the minutiae, which is as it should be, but this motion shines a spotlight on an incredibly important issue for all of us and for the future of this country. It is appropriate that we shine a light on those issues and, as a country, develop solutions to the greatest extent possible. I congratulate my Independent colleagues on the motion.