Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cathaoirleach for the opportunity. I wish the Minister of State well in his important brief. I am Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin from Wicklow-Wexford, which is a new constituency. I am on the education committee but have an interest in this committee too. I welcome the Minister of State's comments on Gaza. It is important that this State leads the way on action in the world, regardless of what the USA or other influential forces might think. The question I had is on the Irish diaspora. We know that they face massive barriers in returning back to the home of their birth. There are the obvious ones of housing, access to health, childcare, school places, crèches and motor insurance.

However, there are many other obstacles which are also erected. It is important that, as a committee, we identify and tackle these. One which was previously mentioned is driving licences. That is a big barrier. From speaking with people who wanted to return, there are significant complications with motor insurance. Qualification for social welfare include various criteria relating to living in the country for the previous 12 months. I have been a teacher for the past 35 years. There are certain barriers for teachers returning home. We have approximately 1.1 million people living here now who were born outside the island of Ireland. It would be important, if we are talking about labour shortages, as we often do, that we put a big focus on bringing our own people home. That should be a big emphasis of the committee.

I am wondering what we plan to do to actively encourage and facilitate the Irish diaspora to come home to the land of their birth. Would the Minister of State be in favour of a system of incentivising Irish citizens to come home? I think there is nothing wrong with giving certain benefits or facilitating our own citizens in a certain way. From being a primary teacher, I think it would be good to have our own primary teachers come back here to fill that void. We might need to have a system of incentivising our citizens to come home. What are the Minister of State's thoughts on that?