Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising a number of important issues affecting the Irish abroad and returning migrants and for acknowledging the Taoiseach's important contribution to the effort to resolve the problems facing undocumented Irish living in the United States in particular. I wish to record the fact that the Government has made the decision to extend voting rights in presidential elections from 2026 onwards to Irish citizens abroad. The Deputy also mentioned the appointment of Senator Billy Lawless to represent the diaspora in our Seanad.

At the moment 400 Irish citizens living abroad return every week to live in Ireland, which is a great thing to see. Who would have thought only five or six years ago that we would be returning to net inward migration and that more people would be coming home to Ireland than are leaving? This reflects better than most statistics the extent to which our economy has turned around and how well our jobs market is doing.

I am advised that we are devising a protocol on access to motor insurance for returning emigrants. The Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, wants to act on this in particular. Those who are coming back here and taking up jobs want to be able to access insurance and carry their good no claims record with them, as they should be allowed to do.

We run into a very particular issue in respect of education, which is that we must treat all EU citizens the same. This means treating an Irish citizen exactly the same as we would a French, Italian or German citizen. If we say to an Irish citizen who has never lived in Ireland that he or she is entitled to free education and college grants, we must say the same thing to more than 400 million EU citizens. A consequence of providing free education and grants to anyone in the European Union who wants it would be the enormous cost implications for the State. We need to take that into account.

Our rules and regulations require a person to be resident in the State to have an Irish driver licence, but people can apply for their driver licence if back here for a short period of time. If they have an Irish passport, they may wish to apply for the new passport card online, which can be done from America. This could be useful in terms of having an ID. It can be done using an app and providing a selfie online. If photo ID is required, they can use the Irish passport card instead of the driver licence.

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