Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is interesting. I am sure the Minister is aware of the story, first broken by The Sunday Times, that over 21,000 Irish citizens have been granted visas to Australia, double the number recorded in the previous year. This will not come as a surprise to any of us because we see it in our friendship groups and neighbourhoods. With the number of people going to Australia, it feel like it did when I came out of college or did the leaving certificate in the 2008 period. According to The Sunday Times, between July 2022 and July 2023, 21,525 holiday permits were granted. That makes us the largest recipient per capitaof this kind of visa, ahead of Britain, France and Germany. We keep hearing that the economy is doing well but very clearly something is going wrong for young people here that they feel there is no alternative to going to Australia. Of course, there will always be an element who want to go and travel, see the world and all that kind of thing, but when there is that level of an increase there is clearly something amiss.

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