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

Those 2011 policies put us back on a footing in 2012 and 2013 after which these issues in relation to barriers for emigrants who returned began to arise.

I came back in September or October 2013 and the first thing with which I had to deal was car insurance. I then had to deal with medical insurance and bank account issues. I was lucky enough to get medical insurance as a benefit of the contract of employment I secured, albeit one had to be six months in the country before one could start to benefit. However, the lack of a no claims bonus really pushed up the price of car insurance. In one of my first contributions in the Dáil, I recall saying that when I was abroad, I had driven on the same side of the road as we do in Ireland in a city of 5 million people. One had five, six and seven lanes merging with highways with busier traffic and that challenged me more as a driver than returning to drive in Croagh, Adare or Rathkeale, where I am from. It was a completely different driving experience. I could not understand, from a risk point of view, how I was being penalised and could not have my no claims history from overseas recognised here. It was completely daft and I could not get my head around it. If one looks at it from a risk mitigation point of view, there is greater risk driving in a big city than there is driving back home as a result of the sheer volume of vehicles on the roads. As such, I welcome the report as it relates to insurance.

I also welcome the comments on driving licences. The issue of driving licences has been a particular concern for contractors who have been flying back and forth to Canada. They have approached me about this matter and about needing driving licences to get work. It is a globalised world now and a lot more contractors will fly in and out, particularly within the EU but also beyond that to the USA, Canada, etc. We should not take our eye off the ball.

I welcome the fact that people are coming in but we had to make decisions previously from a position of weakness. We are now in a position of strength and we should make decisions that will carry us forward to the next level. We need to utilise the link to those people in our diaspora who are not coming home but who want to continue their connection with this country and harness it, socially and economically. That can be across areas like sport and the arts which can have an economic by-product. I can give anecdotal evidence from experience. When one is away from home, the people with whom one mixes from Ireland may include individuals with whom one might not have mixed at home. One's group may have been more homogenous at home but because people from different backgrounds and counties are all out there together, one's friends become one's family and fill that void that is left when one is away from one's family. That generates a whole new synergy.

If we can get that synergy between Ireland and the USA, Australia or the UK, we should look at it not from an economic point of view but a social one. The economic by-product is a result of that. People set up GAA and arts organisations in other countries which draw people from all over Ireland and from different backgrounds, be it construction, multinational companies or public service. As a result of being drawn to that GAA club, they network through each other. They are probably in positions of influence and power within the countries in which they are living and we can utilise that if we can organise it. We can organise it socially because that is attractive and then we will create the economic by-product.

I was blessed regarding where I lived abroad. I worked in recruitment there.

I had to start from scratch and did not have a network. It was a sales-oriented job. When I went on LinkedIn, the first people I looked up were Irish people in positions of influence. They might have been there for two, three or four years before me. When I rang them and they heard I had come over from Limerick, they put their hand out straight away and were ready to give me a chance and help me. For that, I forever will be grateful. Since I had that experience, I tried to return the favour when I heard of others coming over as a result of the crash. I understood what they were coming from and what was driving them. It is recognised that the Irish who arrived down through the years are hard workers. We are recognised across the world as being hard, committed, diligent workers and employers. If we can harness this, make a decision from a position of strength and not take our eye off the ball, both strands can run in parallel. It is just a different way of thinking. I acknowledge there are groups outside Ireland that are considering what I am referring to. I refer to "modern emigrants" — for want of a better phrase — who are lucky enough to be able to come over and back because of air travel. A direct flight between London and Perth was launched this month. There is a synergy allowing us to have networks. People are able to come over and back now whereas, generations ago, including in the 1970s and 1980s, they might have been gone for 15 to 25 years before coming back to visit.

Those of my generation who left are highly educated, unlike those who went before them. They have made it into positions of influence and decision-making positions. They are still there. We really need to develop the relationship between this island and our diaspora across the globe. Both socially and economically, doing so will push this country forward and develop it further.

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