Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the National Youth Council of Ireland delegation and thank it for its work. This is the first study or snapshot we have ever had of a generation. Does the delegation plan to keep it updated by reviewing the cohort surveyed to hear what they have to say, perhaps, this time next year? Last weekend in my constituency, because of the all-Ireland final, many people returned from Australia. I met one man who flew into Dublin from Australia on Saturday evening and left Dublin again on Sunday evening. He had planned on staying around if my county won but he returned as we all did. He was one of, perhaps, 200 who returned from Australia and America for the game. Their attachment to home is still raw and passionate. That is the cohort that has been surveyed but the older emigrants also come back. I am enormously frustrated that this issue does not get the coverage it deserves. I suspect if Dublin was being cleaned out in the same way as areas outside it are being cleaned out, one would read about it in every newspaper. The issue is covered in a very stupid manner. The survey shows how serious this is as problem and I hope it acts as a wake-up call to those who decide what is to be covered.

A quarter of every family in the country is affected. A brother of mine is away for the past 20 years. Some 62% of those who have gone in the cohort surveyed have a third level education. That is the plank on which we will rebuild the country. They are gone. Only 39% want to return. I would be interested to have that percentage revisited as time goes by. Will that percentage increase? As people are away for longer, will they want come back? My concern is that the percentage will decrease as people get settled. One of the factors in this particular wave of emigration is that entire families are leaving with a loss to the school, the community and the team, whereas previously it was one member or, perhaps, the breadwinner. Were those family units in the cohort surveyed or were they all non-family people in terms of their age profile?

We are going to get through this problem and the whole notion of a bringing them home to stay strategy is important. What examples can be cited of good practice around the world where countries have gone after their emigrants to bring them home, following an economic recovery? In regard to the cohort surveyed, Ms McAleer said 62% had a third level education. What about the remainder? Have they got a craft, a skill, or are they completely unskilled? What needs to be done to give them the skills to come home?