Tony Kett (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Aylward, to the House. I welcome the report of the task force. I heard the Minister of State begin his deliberations by saying Ireland has suffered more than most countries from emigration. Over the past 50 years we have seen our share of emigration, particularly in the 1950s and 1980s.

I was surprised to read in the report that we still have an emigration level of 20,000 per year but I am gratified by the knowledge that the majority of those leave by choice rather than necessity. I am further gratified to think that in the past five years the previous Government played a major part in bringing about an economic situation which allowed people to stay in this country and put a cap on the number of people who had to emigrate.

I was also surprised to read in the report that there are 1.2 million Irish born emigrants throughout the world. What if they all decided to return to us? We might find ourselves in a right mess.