Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the report from the Minister of State. It sends a message to our diaspora that we take very seriously what is happening. From an economic point of view, I also welcome what is happening. As the Minister of State pointed out, 500 people are returning each week. If one were to have mooted a figure like that a number of years ago, people would have thrown their eyes to heaven in light of the way matters stood. There was a feeling of no hope. I was part of the diaspora for a number of years. I left Ireland because of the economic crash in 2008. When I and others were getting on aeroplanes to leave, there was a feeling of no hope and no idea as to whether or when we could return. When I was away, a senior business owner where I was living put it to me that our country had spent billions to educate us to such a high level but that, from an economic point of view, other countries were going to make money off us. That is what was happening at the time. We were seen as a lost generation. I do not know if anyone remembers the talk of a brain drain in 2008 and 2009, but it was the big debate and it accorded with the way in which that person to whom I spoke put matters in simple economic terms.

That is not to take away from the social implications. Given how many of us left, there was a quite a sense of loneliness for the people who stayed, particularly those in rural areas. Many of their friends had left and everything had quietened down. There was a crash and it became a recession. It was always poignant when I returned on visits to meet those who had remained here. While they were lucky enough to still have jobs, they felt the sense of loss also with people from their hurling, football and soccer teams and friends and family having left. There was a real backdrop of a lack of hope and no one could look into a crystal ball to see where things would go. I have heard ideological comment from the Opposition on policies that were taken up by the last Government, but things crashed in 2008 and 2009 and the policies that were put in place 2011 meant that, by 2013, people started to come back. That was within two and a half years. If one looks at the policies that were put in place in countries such as Greece between 2012 and 2014, one can see that they gave rise to a completely different environment.

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