Suspended Callely praises students' plan

JOINT COMMITTEE ON ENTERPRISE, TRADE AND EMPLOYMENT:SENATOR IVOR Callely turned up to an Oireachtas committee yesterday although he is still suspended from the Seanad.

Mr Callely spoke at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment and sat in the seats normally occupied by Fianna Fáil members of the committee – although he is no longer a member of the party.

After Mr Callely resigned from the party during the summer, Government Chief Whip John Curran wrote to him asking him to resign his position on four committees as he had been appointed to them as a member of Fianna Fáil.

A party spokesman said yesterday that remained its position, but it could not stop him attending committees.

Fine Gael Senator Eugene Regan said Mr Callely should have had the “good grace” to stay away from such meetings until the end of his suspension at least.

Mr Callely made a short speech at the committee in which he praised a presentation by the Union of Students in Ireland on the issue of a national graduate internship programme and urged committee members to use their political connections to help the union.

“My proposal to the committee is that we would assist you if you wish to open doors and make presentations to the relevant ministers,” he said.

He left shortly afterwards before the meeting finished.

Mr Callely is suspended for 20 days from the Seanad after its Select Committee’s of Members Interests found he had misrepresented his place of residence in order to claim expenses. He appealed the ruling to the High Court which is yet to give its judgment.

At yesterday’s committee meeting, the Union of Students in Ireland called for the introduction of a national graduate intern programme which it said would keep thousands of young people in Ireland who were otherwise considering emigrating. The union believes there is scope for thousands of graduates to be employed in the public and private sector at no extra cost to the State.

It estimates that there are 90,000 unemployed graduates who are emigrating at a rate of about 1,000 a week.

USI president Gary Redmond told the committee that most graduates who were thinking of emigration would stay at home if they had something like an internship to do.

He proposed graduates should receive the maximum in jobseeker’s benefit of €196 a week, which many do not at present as they have insufficient PRSI credits.