I agree with much, if not everything, that has been said in the course of the debate by those on all sides. Balancing our skills need and development is important. I want to come at this from a slightly different angle, however. I am chair of the European affairs committee, and a delegation from the committee recently visited Luxembourg and met some of the people involved in the European institutions there. We know they exist throughout the European Union, including with Eurofound, which celebrates its 50th year in Loughlinstown in my constituency this year. There are a range of positions and good jobs in those institutions that are available to Irish people. We have done very well in the European civil service, if I can call it that, over the years, whereby Irish people have attained very high positions, in particular the likes of Catherine Day, who was head of the European civil service before she retired. In a meeting with the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, we found there were six high level in Ireland there due to retire the coming years. There are not the people at the middle level ready to take over for them at the higher level. In terms of readiness and preparedness from a national point of view, one of the opportunities we have is to push much harder that door into European institutions. The European Movement Ireland has a green book to advertise and inform people of the vacancies arising. Those vacancies can relate to the Commission, the Council, the Parliament or other institutions right across the Union. We need to do better at convincing Irish people to apply for these jobs. We are lagging behind other countries in terms of applications. Italy is one of the front-runners. It has an institution dedicated to preparing people to apply for those jobs, not just telling them about what a job involves and the remuneration package but also about how to apply for a job and how to prepare an application. When people get interviews, that institution gives them the skill set and information they need to be successful. That is important, not just because it is good for the people involved to get those jobs and get into an institution that can be a lifelong place of growth and opportunity but also, and more importantly, it means, from a national perspective, that when decisions are made all over Europe, if there is an Irish person sitting at the table, our perspective is ventilated. Of course, the institutions do not represent any state, and I am not saying they should, but it cannot be a bad thing for Ireland to have a person in the room when decisions are being made. The best way to do that is to reinforce the need for Irish people to apply for jobs in Europe.

Sentiment score: 0.32