JOBS:INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE Seán Gallagher has said he would reach out to what he called the "trapped" generation if elected president, saying high-tech industries could not supply enough employment to meet demand.
Speaking at a presidential forum focused on employment hosted by Sigmar Recruitment in association with The Irish Times in Dublin yesterday, Mr Gallagher said he was less concerned about the many skilled young people who were emigrating than he was about some of their parents.
“Those perhaps in their 40s and 50s who have a mortgage, possibly in negative equity with children in school, and do not have the capability to leave, and therefore they’re trapped with low skills and few opportunities.
“And I think we need to value traditional work, manufacturing and services, and not just look at high-tech because high-tech industries will not have the capacity to absorb half a million people,” Mr Gallagher said.
Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness said he too would attempt to focus on employment. He said the development of an all-island economy was essential and would reap rewards “for the 32 counties”.
Labour Party candidate Michael D Higgins said while the president’s role in areas such as job creation was extremely limited, the head of State could nevertheless attract “significant decision-makers into the room”. If elected he would make sure the Council of State, which can be convened to consider legislation, was “representative in an inclusive sense”.
Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell said he was “sick and tired” of people taking swipes at the European Union after Ireland “got into trouble”. He said he believed Ireland did not become truly sovereign until it joined the EU. He said Irish politicians had stopped “networking” with their European counterparts in the last number of years, something he said he knew how to do. “I’m a businessman and my business is politics,” he said.
Independent candidate Mary Davis said she would be a “practical president”. She said the president could open doors, “that perhaps the Ministers of the Government are not in a position to do”.
Independent candidate Dana Rosemary Scallon said maintaining Ireland’s rate of corporation tax was vital.
