John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am really keen to know if the witnesses have ideas on a strategy to incentivise people to come back because we do not have the answer. If anyone has ideas or opinions, it would be very important to hear them.

We have the figures, or at least estimates, for 2008 onwards but how do they compare to figures for the five years before 2008 so that we can get a real comparison as to how much things have really shifted since the recession? It is really important to put everything into perspective because politicians, in particular, are afraid. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, got an awful beating on the radio one day over a comment he made but there will always be push and pull factors when it comes to emigration. That is not to dismiss what is happening but it must be kept in the background too.

As Deputy Calleary said, there is not a family which has not been touched by emigration. My niece was home from Australia for five weeks over the summer. It was great to see her and her new baby. There will always be tough issues around people leaving. However, we must get the facts on the push and pull factors and on what we are doing to ensure the push factors are limited as much as possible.

Much is being done currently, which must be acknowledged. I mention the Pathways to Work strategy 2013, which was updated earlier this year, and the setting up of an implementation team to oversee the roll-out of the strategy, which contains 50 points and which specifically focuses on young people who are unemployed. The youth guarantee is mentioned in it and how to roll that out so that we reduce the push factors in regard to people who are, to a certain extent, being coerced into leaving. Social causes is included in that policy. The particular team, which was set up and is being headed by Mr. Martin Murphy, has a really good blend of policy and industry experts who know how to create, and who have created, jobs in Ireland and who know about the lives of the people out of work. It is important to put on the record the fact much is being done. Of the 4,000 places on the Momentum initiative, a particular number are for the under 25s. In the context of the conversation we are having today, it is important to at least put that on the record. However, I do not want to come across as if I am pretending it is not happening but let us put it all into perspective and deal with the raw issues that are based completely on facts, including the pre-2008 figures which are really important because they will give us an indication of the extent of emigration, horrific as it is and how it is being exacerbated by the times in which we have lived for the past five years.

One of the best things we can do, which I will most definitely pursue, is to establish how the State and the Government can try to come up with some sort of incentive strategy and long-term plan to get people back. That is a really interesting point and I was delighted Ms McAleer mentioned it. I would like to hear her thoughts on it even if it is not today. I know Mr. Doorley and the other witnesses will come back to us, which we would really appreciate, because we would be willing to do what we can.