Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I would like to give a slightly upbeat contribution on the merits of emigrating for a set period of time. I recently attended a celebration in the RDS that was organised by the United States Embassy. I gather the Chairman was there too. If my memory is right, we were celebrating the fact that J1 visas have been taken up by 150,000 students over the years. The figure may have been 250,000. I am open to correction. It was one of those two figures. The consensus view is that it is an outstanding scheme. Young kids love to move away from this country for various reasons.

I suppose I can speak personally because I married an immigrant into Ireland. She was not an economic immigrant. I left Ireland - I never saw myself as emigrating - to travel extensively in Africa. I lived in Africa for four years. Neither I nor my travelling companions ever thought of ourselves as emigrating. I have two daughters, one who lives in New York while the other lives in London. I would like to put it on the record that the days of the Liverpool bar on the docks, and the Munster ship with all the cattle and building workers travelling to Holyhead or Liverpool, are dead. They are not the people we are talking about today. My uncles were all construction workers - plasterers, builders and plumbers. They went as the construction industry was in peak and boom. They stayed in digs and had their food served up to them. That is so old-fashioned now that I do not fully understand how it worked.

I applaud the work the witnesses have produced. I read the report and the recommendations with fascination and interest. The statistics that have been produced are mind-boggling. If I understand it correctly, it appears that 47%, or almost half, of those who are emigrating have full-time employment in this country. I do not know whether the word "emigrating" should be applied to these highly qualified men and women, who have been to third level education. We should consider that cohort of people in the context of the development of the world today. There are 28 countries in the EU. We have a common currency. We are Europeans. We are not just Irish anymore. We live in a global world. There is a contrast between the period of mass emigration of construction and agriculture workers to England, where they built the roads and railways, etc., and the current era. When we are talking about those who leave now, we are really not talking about the same people. The witnesses mentioned some huge technological advances. My first grandchild was born in America. I speak to my daughter on Skype regularly. We are always clicking and talking on our mobile telephones. It is as if they were across the road. It should be borne in mind when we are talking about emigration to England that it is an hour away. It would nearly take one the same amount of time to travel up to Donegal.