Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation. We share the same position in that we all see the positive elements in the proposal.
Crosscare has two jobs to do. First, it must sell the register to us and to the Department. I presume the only difficulty the Department will have with it is the cost. There are positives regarding the proposal.
Second, a body of work must be done to sell it to emigrants. As the delegation said, 48% of emigrants felt there was not adequate support for them. There is also an element who feel they were forced to emigrate and, therefore, are resentful. Crosscare must reconnect with them, if nothing else. We must maintain contact and re-enforce the idea that emigrants are not seen as a cash cow or having failed Ireland in some way. These are big issues in the discussion. All of that must be part of the register.
The register must be relevant. People will not register if it is just a standard one and not kept up to date. The issue is how to make it relevant and attractive.
A positive point was made about jobs. The initiative will provide news from home and all those other elements. People will say they can get news online from The Irish Times or other websites but there is other information that is relevant.
The delegation answered the queries about costs. Does it know of any other country that has a similar register? Ireland is unique in that it has a long history of its people leaving. Can we study other registers and seek out best practice?
Voting is an issue that crops up all the time and is about the feeling of disconnection. The issue arose at the Constitutional Convention and it will be discussed in the Dáil tomorrow. Will the delegation consider such debates and information? As shown by the groups involved, there is a huge amount of interest in votes. Is it a good idea to factor votes into the register?
Deputy Smith mentioned the forgotten Irish. The groups who deal with the Irish in Britain and so on can attest to the fact that there is a disconnect. A lot of the groups have mentioned that part of the problem for housing, for example, was that one had to approach four or five different Departments and there was no person to co-ordinate things. Now we have an individual to do the work and I hope progress will be made. Does Crosscare have a proposal that will run in tandem with the register to reach out to elderly emigrants? Many of them may not be familiar with computers. Perhaps I am being dismissive and they are more up to date than the younger element.
The latest figures on emigration claim people who are much younger are going abroad.

Figures released in recent days also show that young graduates are emigrating. Those young emigrants as well as the older emigrants will find it difficult abroad. The young people almost expected the days of emigration were over although those who are a little older might have a different view on that. Those are some of my ideas.

This area presents huge potential. We would all be singing from the same hymn sheet in agreeing that there is great deal of positivity in what our guests have suggested. The difficulty will be to sell it to the Minister. In monetary terms, the cost involved would be buttons having regard to the potential in this area. We are using the ConnectIreland initiative and other such initiatives. We are starting to outreach to people who are travelling to and from this country and to those who have left this country, and this proposal is another part of that.