Mr. Joe O'Brien:

Emigration has been with us for hundreds of years and for the foreseeable future it is likely to remain an aspect of Irish life. It is important to remember that even in years of growth, thousands of Irish people have emigrated. Emigration and recent emigration, in particular, has been problematic. One of the persistent challenges over the centuries has been the legacy of disconnection.

Emigration creates disconnected lives, disconnected families and communities and yet we are led to believe that as a society and globally we are more interconnected than ever before. Since April 2008, some 250,000 Irish people have left the State, the equivalent of the populations of Ennis, Tallaght, New Ross, Limerick city, Cavan town, Kenmare, Drogheda and Ballinasloe being emptied out. Most worrying, the recent CSO statistics show that in the year up to April 2014, we have the lowest rate of return immigration of Irish people since records began in 1996. It could well be that those who have left are deciding increasingly to stay away.

As a pre-departure information service for emigrants we have seen that the recent wave of emigration has been substantially different from previous times. It has been the first wave of Irish emigration in the Internet age. This has transformed the emigration experience significantly and has allowed for a far higher degree of pre-departure preparation. For example, it is now possible to search for, view and finalise accommodation online before departure. Successful job interviews are often held via web based video link for jobs on the other side of the world and communication options with home have improved dramatically with e-mail, social networking, photosharing and live video linking via Skype, all available at extremely low cost.

Last year's UCC Emigre report, Irish Emigration in an Age of Austerity, found that 75% of Irish emigrants use Skype regularly to maintain contact with family and friends in Ireland with 90% using Facebook and other social networking sites. In particular from the point of view of what the State can do, the Internet has not been maximised in terms of its capacity to minimise the damage, the loss and the disconnection caused by emigration. This view is echoed in a more recent report by UCD Clinton Institute on supporting the next generation of the Irish Diaspora.

From the UCC Emigre report, it is very significant that more than 70% of emigrants frequently read Irish newspapers online and another 16% read them sometimes. At the same time Irish emigrants abroad continue to feel forgotten about by the Irish State. Some 48% of emigrants disagreed with the statement that the Government provided adequate support for them.

In short we believe there is a lack of reciprocity of interest. Once people have left the State, it will have little if any interaction with them unless they return home. What we are proposing is a remarkably simple idea, the creation of a State managed e-mail based database, whereby emigrants would simply log minimal information such as e-mail address, name, country of residence and periodically they would receive an e-mail or a newsletter from the Irish State. The Irish emigrant register, as we are calling it, could be used in a number of ways to improve the connection between the State and our ever growing diaspora. A very practical initial purpose of the emigrant register would be to facilitate return migration by connecting Irish emigrants abroad and a developing labour market in Ireland. The State could, for example, contact emigrants directly with a list of job vacancies and emerging skills needs in the Irish labour market as part of a regular update or newsletter. The Department of Social Protection has sent welfare recipients in Ireland notifications of job advertisements for countries as far away as Canada. Today I found a total of 68 advertisements for jobs abroad on INTREO Jobsearch database. We say that the Irish State should be also notifying Irish emigrants abroad about jobs in Ireland. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, in particular the expert group on future skills, needs could feed into such updates by providing information on current and emerging skills needs. The following skills deficits were identified in a recent report by them in the areas of ICT, science, engineering, sales, marketing, business, finance and health care.

This is information that our emigrants should have as soon as it becomes available. I attended a national youth council conference on return migration two weeks ago, where a representative from the Construction Industry Federation expressed concern that the industry was unable to fill emerging technical posts. In the context of unemployment and austerity measures, some people feel there is an implied invitation to leave the country by the State. Whatever amount of truth is in this, many would agree that there should be an explicit invitation to return.

The availability of jobs is one of the most common factors cited by emigrants abroad that would influence the chances of an emigrant returning home according to the aforementioned UCC report. The establishment of the Irish emigrant register would be a very clear way of saying "we want you back". However, it could also be used for other purposes such as informing citizens about relevant embassy and consular services, and passport and travel advice issues. It could also be used as the basis of a consultation tool in the development of various relevant Government policy. In the Internet age, our citizens abroad can be as connected with and invested in the political, economic and social issues in Ireland as those of us living here. Their views could and should be elicited and invited in a more direct manner that the Irish emigrant register could facilitate. In essence it would act as a connecting mechanism between the Irish State and its citizens abroad.

We propose that the register might be best managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with inputs from the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, INTREO and the Department of Social Protection. While the proposal is relatively simple, we have identified some issues that need to be overcome. We have broken them down into three. The first challenge would be populating the register, followed by keeping it updated. Second, like any database or register resources will need to be dedicated to its maintenance and expansion. Third, data protection, the usage parameters of the register should be very clearly defined and communicated up-front.

In respect of the first challenge, populating the register, we have a few suggestions on how that might best be done. We believe the Irish emigrant register would need to be marketed by Government at a very high level and globally, for example, St. Patrick's Day 2015 could offer an ideal platform for the register to be launched and promoted in a global manner. It also offers a reasonable yet swift timeframe to get the register up and running. Irish embassies, consulates, NGOs businesses and media globally should be engaged in the promotion of the register. At another level the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade could negotiate with the Australian and Canadian emigration services with whom we have reciprocal visa agreements to amend their working holiday visa application forms for Irish people to include a mechanism whereby they would agree to their name and e-mail address to be sent to the Irish State for direct inclusion on the register. This measure alone could potentially add 20,000 to 30,000 people automatically to the register every year, at current rates of emigration. For this to work, it is important that requested data is kept to a minimum and evidence is shown on a regular basis that it is working and people are actually benefiting from it.

Our ask is simple, although there are a couple of aspects to it. We ask the committee to champion this proposal. We ask members to write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan and the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan, requesting them to progress the proposals by four specific actions, setting up of a cross-departmental working group between the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Social Protections; ensuring that funding is available to do this in budget 2015; marking 17 March 2015 as a possible launch date for the actual register; and asking the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to open negotiations with Australia and Canada in terms of the option to give information to Ireland on the e-mail addresses of people emigrating by working holiday visas.

The Irish emigrant register will not transform emigration into something easy. It will not make forced emigration more acceptable, but what it does have the capacity to do is to serve as a link between the State and its citizens abroad, many of whom still feel poorly supported and forgotten about. Ultimately, we believe it can help to improve our relationship with our diaspora, not in an ethereal way but in a very practical and tangible sense by, for example, making the Irish labour market more connected to Irish emigrants abroad. The proposal will need a modest amount of funding compared to its potential gain, it will need focused co-operation between a number of Departments and it requires dedicated responsibility being assigned and persisted with. Many of our emigrants abroad are only waiting to get the call home and are only waiting to feel more connected with their country. In a globalised world, we suggest that we should take the lead in showing other global nations how to stay connected and prove how much our diaspora means to us, by establishing the Irish emigrant register.