I will set my script down and instead talk to the Minister about my biggest concern at the moment, namely, youth unemployment. It is at approximately 12% and could grow further. Graduates and their parents and families have invested in education to the point where they are coming out with four or maybe six years of education, but they do not have employment opportunities in their own country. Obviously, whatever strategies we have are not working when we take that as a measure of what is happening today. It is a huge concern. I want the Minister to specifically put actions in place to ensure those people can work in their own country. There are also too many barriers. I spoke with a physiotherapist the other day. In the first instance, we did not have enough college places for people like her and, as a result, they had to train in the Netherlands. As part of their registration, they had to come back to do a placement in an acute hospital. They found out, however, that because they were forced to get their education abroad, no placement was available for them in an acute hospital. They find themselves being forced to emigrate and work in another country when we are desperate for physiotherapists here. There are too many blockages and I want the Minister to examine and remove them. I also want the Minister to work, as my colleague said, on an all-island basis. We need a labour force that covers the whole of the island. There are too many impediments to having that workforce right across the island. The other concern is that we may find ourselves in a situation, just like with Covalen, Meta and others, where people are suddenly without jobs. Imagine a young couple or individual working for such a company. They may have debts, but they will also have huge obligations, such as rent or a mortgage and all of those things. Those people may suddenly find they do not have a job any more. The Minister must speak to the Minister, Deputy Burke, about this. I have been trying to get through to him for months now about the need to have a plan in place so that when there is an announcement made about job losses, there is one point of contact for those workers. That point of contact would be able to advise them about opportunities for their start-up enterprises, the immediate supports that are available and securing new employment. I also see an opportunity in this regard. We have lost so much expertise within government. We need much more expertise inside Departments. Where we have young, qualified people coming out of college or people who have been unfortunate enough to lose their jobs, we need to be taking those skills inside government to build up the necessary expertise so that we are not continuously outsourcing and taking consultants on. We should be building that capacity in Departments, whatever Department it might be, right across government. This outsourcing that has been done for years has left us vulnerable to outside influences. Many things need to be done in this regard, rather than mere written strategies.

Sentiment score: -0.02