Ms Marie-Clare McAleer:

I am delighted to hear that. We would be delighted to make future submissions to the committee on that. In that regard, there is a broad range of stakeholders who would be really valuable in terms of making a contribution.

That would be valuable in terms of making a contribution.

The Deputy mentioned the picture of immigration and emigration in the past ten years. Dr. Mary Gilmartin, who is a migrant specialist, published in this area last year. I refer members to her study, The changing landscape of Irish migration, 2000-2012. It would be important that she would present that to the committee because she is an expert in the area and can give members much more detail than I can in such a short session.

In terms of the figures, the 200,600 refers to the number of Irish people who have emigrated but I must highlight that, again, we have not had good data on this and it is important to ensure that the data collected in the census includes emigration or that there is more data on the profile of those who are leaving.

On the limit on the push factors, we acknowledge the work of this committee. I have read at length the reports it has produced and acknowledge the Springboard, Momentum and some of the ICT conversion skills initiatives. There is a good deal being done but it is about investing in quality education and training and having enough places to meet the demands. We must examine the reasons people are leaving and the evidence suggests they are leaving because of the labour market and the conditions at home. They are leaving for better opportunities career and salary wise and a better standard of living abroad. That is what the UCC study said to me, and as I said it is a very detailed report and covers many different aspects.

A new dimension is that we have a history of emigration and people came back. The question of whether people will return is up in the air, so to speak. A previous question was whether the recent emigrants would come back. That depends on one's personal circumstances but the consultation with the emigrants leaving now seems to suggest they would be open to it but there must be enough of a pull to bring them back.