European Union Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central 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. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-07/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-07