Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The number of Irish emigrants who have returned to Ireland in the past two years is estimated at 36,000. The CSO does not track their subsequent entry to employment. At a macro level, the Government's strategy is to rebuild the economy and accelerate the transition to a sustainable, jobs-rich economy based on enterprise, innovation and exports. It is in this way that we will create the environment in which sustainable jobs will be created, living standards will be raised and Ireland will be regarded as an attractive location in which to live and work.

I fully recognise the increase in emigration that has occurred since the onset of our economic crisis. I firmly believe that job creation is the most effective policy to tackle emigration. This Department's focus is on employment creation in the enterprise sector. We are doing this through the Action Plan for Jobs and have already seen the positive results of the action being taken across the whole of Government to support the enterprise sector to sustain existing jobs and create new ones. In the past 12 months, an estimated 39,000 jobs have been created in the private sector. It is estimated that over 90% of new jobs have gone to Irish nationals. These opportunities go to a mix of people - some leaving the live register, some entering the labour market for the first time and some returning emigrants. There are many initiatives from other Departments that seek to provide alternative routes for those who might be considering emigration. JobBridge, Springboard, Momentum and JobPlus are all new initiatives supplementing existing programmes in FÁS and the Department of Social Protection.

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