2026-05-07

Baineann mo cheist le fostaíocht san Aontas Eorpach. Tá gá orainn níos mó a dhéanamh chun eolas a thabhairt do dhaoine, go háirithe anseo in Éirinn, faoi na poist atá ar fáil agus an bealach ar féidir iarratas a dhéanamh orthu le go n-éireoidh leo lena gcuid iarratas agus na poist sin a thógáil. Tá sé sin thar a bheith tábhachtach, go háirithe an tseachtain seo nuair atá Lá na hEorpa á cheiliúradh againn Dé hAoine. Caithfidh muid a bheith in ann a rá i rith Uachtaránacht an Aontais Eorpaigh go bhfuil muid ag déanamh iarracht Éireannaigh a chur sna poist sin ar fud na hEorpa. The question I have this evening is about employment in European Union institutions. As this week we celebrate Europe Day commemorating the Schuman Declaration, it is an important week to think about this as we approach the Presidency coming up on 1 July as well. This week a delegation from the European affairs committee, which I chair, visited Luxembourg where there are a number of European institutions there and a number of Irish people working within those institutions. It was my pleasure to meet many of them and talk to them about the work they are doing. They range from people who are on stages there, people who are trainees within places like the Court of Auditors, to Tony Murphy who is currently the lead person, the president of the Court of Auditors. There are Irish people throughout those institutions contributing at the very highest level. Thank God they are there because the reality is that at the moment our influence within those institutions is waning and we need to do something about that. One of the things I learned this week is that Ireland is not even in the top ten in terms of European countries applying for such jobs. I am talking about per capita rather than in sheer numbers. It contrasts sharply with countries like Italy, for example, which specifically targets jobs within European institutions by putting in place a whole college, a whole institution, whose job it is to prepare Italians to apply for jobs, to position them, to inform them, to help them make those applications and to help them be competitive when going through the process. Although we have had some notable Irish people at the top of the European civil service like Catherine Day, who was, of course, the head civil servant within the European Commission, many of those people have retired. The people who occupy high positions will retire in the coming years. For example, six Irish people in the Court of Auditors will come to retirement in the coming years. If they retire and leave that service, we do not have the people coming behind them to fill the positions and to ensure we still have that presence within the institutions. It can be said that these are institutions for the whole of the European Union and not for Ireland, and of course that is true, but we should be represented in them. One of the ways we can do that is by focusing our resources to educate people throughout the country on what is available. It is not just that, but we need to encourage them to apply for jobs, to inform them about what the pay and conditions are. It is not just about the pay, there are also favourable tax incentives for them, childcare facilities, healthcare facilities and relocation grants. Lots of things go with these jobs. More importantly, these are immensely fulfilling jobs. They do important work that influences the decisions that are made across our Continent. The opportunity for people in this jurisdiction to contribute at that level is huge. In addition to giving them all that information, we also need to advise them how to apply and how to be successful in their applications so that when they put in applications, they are competitive in that. We are not even competitive yet in terms of the numbers of applications being made. If we do not have enough people applying, we will not have enough people who will be awarded those positions. There are institutions not just in Luxembourg but across the EU, including Eurofound here in Ireland. This is the time we need to have a concerted effort to inform people in this country about the opportunities there, encourage them to apply and help them make successful applications.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an ábhar seo a chur os ár gcomhair. I agree with him that it is an opportunity present, showcase, promulgate, inform and educate people as to what is available. We should be represented in the European institutions and I fully concur with him. I apologise that the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, is not here to take this and I am taking it for him. I welcome this opportunity to address what is genuinely a success story, one that reflects years of sustained, strategic effort by the Government to ensure that Irish citizens are well represented in the EU institutions. In May 2021, the Government launched the A Career for EU strategy to improve Irish representation in the EU. Implementation is led by the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. The strategy has three key areas of focus: promotion of careers in the EU institutions in Ireland, in particular within the education system, to encourage more Irish applicants for EU posts; greater support and training for Irish people interested in careers in the EU; and promoting the reform of the EU’s recruitment process to ensure more Irish people get posts in the institutions. Since its launch, outreach and awareness-raising have expanded significantly. This includes social media, with a particular focus on the careers networking platform LinkedIn, and informational webinars with professional bodies and universities. There is also attendance at second and third level careers events, reaching thousands of people in 2025. Additionally, in 2025, hundreds of Irish candidates received targeted training supports across multiple competitions, including EU-specific practice materials and interview preparation. The strategy and these efforts are starting to bear results. For example, Ireland had 43 permanent officials at the key entry grades in the European Commission in December 2025, an increase of seven on 2024 and up from 30 in 2022. I also wish to highlight the large number of Irish applicants for the recent graduate AD5 competition, the first large-scale recruitment competition that the EU has held since 2019. Over 1,700 Irish citizens submitted applications, placing Ireland tenth out of 27 member states on a per capita basis. The result also shows that Ireland had the third largest increase in candidates compared with our figures in 2019. In addition, in January 2026, Dr. Lorraine Nolan took up office as executive director of the European Union Drugs Agency, the third Irish national currently heading an EU agency. Traineeships are a proven pathway towards a rewarding career in the European Union, and recent promotional efforts have also focused on highlighting ones such as the Blue Book with the Commission. In 2025, 34 Irish people undertook the Schuman traineeship with the European Parliament, representing 3.76% of total trainees. This is almost double our expected percentage of 1.94%. The Government has made notable progress on the placement of seconded national experts, SNEs, from the public or Civil Service in strategically important positions across the institutions. Funding for the centrally funded scheme for SNEs has risen from €2 million in 2021 to €4.2 million this year, supporting an increase from 24 SNEs to 53 over the course of 2025 and helping to give Ireland the highest number of SNEs per capita in the European Commission among all member states. With Ireland assuming the Presidency of the European Union from 1 July 2026, having experienced Irish officials in place across the institutions has never been more important. In summary, the progress we have made under the A Career for EU strategy is real, measurable and the result of a consistent, whole-of-government commitment to ensuring that Irish voices, Irish values and Irish expertise are present at the heart of the European Union. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

I agree with the Minister of State on the effort being made. I acknowledge the work done by the Department of foreign affairs and European Movement Ireland. I also acknowledge that Noelle O'Connell has left as the head of European Movement and has been replaced by David Geary. We wish him the best of luck there. They do a particularly good job in terms of advertising jobs and making people aware. While I acknowledge that there has been success there, many of our highly qualified capable graduates are not aware of the opportunities that arise. It is not just the Commission and the Parliament. There are many institutions across the European Union where there are good quality jobs that give people an opportunity to contribute at the highest level but also give us an opportunity as a country to put our values and our views at the top table. We need to be encouraging those people, and however good it might be now, we need to redouble our efforts. There is an opportunity coming with the Presidency. I know from speaking to colleagues around Europe that there is a very high expectation for how Ireland will do during that Presidency. We all have faith that our officials will continue to deliver at the highest level, as they have done in the past and as they will do again in the second half of this year. However, there is an opportunity now for us to target graduates from university, people within the jobs market. I am not talking about it happening passively but we need to be doing it actively. There should be a dedicated unit within the Department of foreign affairs that has, as its remit, education, information and assistance to help people get into those positions, and doing so in a targeted way with measurables so they can show the increases in numbers of applications and the successes that might come from those applications. If we do not do this, we will allow our numbers to reduce in real terms and our influence within the Union to reduce. It is to be hoped during our Presidency that we will pursue an enlargement agenda which will make the European Union larger. I know that Montenegro might be at the top of the list, but there are countries very close behind it as well. In the coming years, we will see enlargement. A lot of their citizens will have to fill positions. We cannot allow Ireland to fall behind into a position where our guys are not getting a seat at the table the way they should.

I again thank the Deputy. There is huge merit in what he is suggesting. The point he made on education, information and assistance is critical. He is right that we must continue to raise awareness. We must continue to ensure that there are Irish people in good quality jobs in the European Union. The Deputy is 100% right that our influence in Europe has never been more needed in a global world where there is uncertainty. We are building new friendships and new alliances. I commend the Deputy on his role as chair of the European grouping in the Oireachtas. I wish David Geary every success in his new position and thank Noelle O’Connell for what she has done as European Movement Ireland is a critically important organisation. The Deputy is correct that our officials are doing extraordinary work. That is why one of the three key pillars of the careers in Europe strategy is about promoting the reform of the European Union’s recruitment process to ensure we have more Irish graduates and others getting posts in the institutions. We firmly believe that the structural issues require permanent solutions. We continue to lobby, alongside like-minded member states, for the adoption of selection competitions based on nationality for underrepresented countries. The Deputy’s points are well made. As a country, we have welcomed the decision by the European Parliament to hold nationally based competitions to address the chronic underrepresentation of three member states, namely, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria, among the staff. As the Deputy knows, the legality of this decision is being challenged in the Parliament by Spain and Italy, and it is before the Court of Justice. Ireland has intervened in the case in support of the Parliament, and the case is ongoing. A positive outcome to this legal case would set a precedent for the use of nationality-based competitions by the Commission and other institutions. The Deputy is right about the need to continue raising awareness so that we can have good quality jobs for Irish people in the EU institutions. I commend him on bringing the matter before the House.