Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a few comments to add and questions to ask. I welcome the National Youth Council of Ireland's report. I thank the witnesses for coming in and asking us to tackle the subject. As a result of today's and earlier discussions we will carry out another report and focus on this issue for a couple of months. We have a duty to do that on two fronts: we need to track emigrants and invest in a plan to bring them back when the time is right. I am conscious that no one is saying that a plan will be in place tomorrow, but we all believe that we can fix this country so we must put a plan in place. The 39% of people who are interested in coming back is a little bit scary because we thought the figure would be higher. Part of the problem is our pre-departure efforts - we are not supporting people enough. The issue was looked at a year or to ago but people are almost afraid to discuss it. Governments of all parties over the years have been afraid to discuss pre-departure support as if it implies a failure of the country. We must accept our position.