Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to start by referring to two sets of figures that were released today, the first of which are the detailed census figures, which have been released by the CSO. There are a number of interesting figures in that. There is the fact that in the final figures, the population of the country is 25,000 more than it was estimated. The provisional census - and colleagues in this House may be interested in this - according to Adrian Kavanagh, means that the minimum number of Deputies will have to be 172, rather than 171, as set out by the Electoral Commission.

The section of today's report that I want to draw attention to is the level of educational attainment. It shows that in Ireland's population, the level of educational attainment across all sectors continues to grow. People are finishing their education much later and they are staying on in education. More are engaging in lifelong education. As well as that, coincidentally, today the European Union published figures on education attainment. It discovered that tertiary educational attainment levels among those aged 25 to 34, who are recent graduates and who are core for any country's socioeconomic development, is at 62%. This means that we have the highest rate in the European Union and, consequently, one of the highest rates in the world. In terms of Ireland's long-term social and economic development, these figures are very welcome. It is something we do not realise. In the past, the emphasis for our economic development was in tax and talent, we will now be competing on talent. It is important that we, as a House, start to acknowledge the very significant levels of educational attainment, the broader educational community that has achieved those results and the fact this Government and, in particular, our party took the right decision to establish the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. We must ensure that we continue to invest in the talent pipeline.