Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join the Chairman in sincerely apologising for delaying Mr. McGann, Mr. Roche and Mr. Leahy earlier, but it could not be avoided. We appreciate that their time is very valuable and we thank them for coming here.

We talk about the future-proofing of our finances. The Government and the Ministers with responsibility for finance find themselves in an unusual situation, having money, trying to balance the prospect of future-proofing as best they can, satisfying the political wants and needs of now, allowing for orderly growth and development and investment in infrastructure and trying to strike a balance. However, the one thing which is critical to the future - Mr. McGann highlighted it - and which is very worrying is the projected demographic for Ireland in a number of years' time. I refer to the percentage of older people versus younger people who will be working and paying tax. At this time, we see a massive number of people leaving our country. An awful number of young people are leaving. In many cases, it is what could be called a choice in that they want to go. It is great to see young people who want to go, but it is a horrible thing to think of people feeling that they need to go. People want to go away for a while and see other parts of the world, perhaps make a bit of money to come home with and have different life experiences. What seems to be happening, though, is that when people go to far-away places like Australia, it is no different from when, say, our aunties, uncles and so on left in the 1950s and went to America. The number of the latter who came home was minuscule. I am afraid that, in particular over the past seven years, many people have left. Are they coming back after two or three years? They are not. These people are the real key to our financial success in the future. In other words, politically, it is incumbent on all of us to try to do everything we can to encourage people to stay here now. Of course, the basics have to be adequately paid jobs and housing, whether that means people getting planning permission on home farms or being able to afford to get their foot on the property ladder. That is where we are falling down financially for the future. Every one of them who is leaving would have a lifetime of work, would have paid tax and would be a benefit to the countryside. Then, of course, there is the next generation after that. We are losing them as well. They are the grandchildren of tomorrow. The cycle goes on and on. For instance, if the people who left here in the 1950s could have somehow or other been encouraged to stay, look at the difference they would have made to the last 50 or 60 years. Every one of us can reach into our own families' experiences. Very few families would not have had people who left like that, whether through the wave of emigration in the 1950s and 1960s or later, particularly those ten years from the early to the late 1980s. The vast majority of those people did not come back.

We are talking about what I would call mam's purse. If mam's purse is all right, the rest of the country is all right as well. I see that as being the biggest stumbling block we have. There is all the convolution, whether it is the tax regime or whatever we are looking to put in place. One of the first things we should be looking at is how we can keep young people in Ireland. If we can do that, it will be a massive investment in our futures and in all that would be good to come in the future. With everyone we will lose, it would be millions. It would be impossible to quantify the difference they could make because of the repeated knock-on effects.

That is all I want to say. I just wanted to make that point about the youth. Again, I thank the witnesses most sincerely. Mr. McGann's presentation was excellent, and I really appreciate their coming here.