Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Yesterday was quite a significant day in more ways than one. I wanted to pick up on the comments made by Senator Coghlan and complement the former Taoiseach, John Bruton, on his comments which were very much in line with those of Senator Donohoe, in that a very positive message is being sent out, particularly to the bondholders, that it is hands off Ireland.

It was also significant that at the IBEC conference at which John Bruton and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, spoke the message which came across from all of the participants, not from the political class but from those who are driving the economy and creating jobs, was that there was far too much negativity in the media about the current state of the Irish economy which was feeding into the type of reaction to which Senator Donohoe and others referred.

In that context, I ask the Leader to convey good wishes to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, on the fact that the figures which were published yesterday showed that for the second month running there was a decrease in the live register and that the percentage of those unemployed had fallen by the highest rate since 1996. I want to debunk the mantra, which has now become constant among those who have criticised the Government's economic and job policies, that there are 100,000 people emigrating from this country. I want to blow that myth out of the water.

The current CSO figures which I have show that the pattern of emigration has remained constant over the past five years and the net number to April 2010 of Irish nationals who have left this country is 27,000. The remainder of the 65,000 who have left the country are non-nationals many of whom are, I presume, returning home. To put the figure of 27,000 in context at the time of the boom in 2006 the net outflow of Irish nationals was 15,000. Let us get real about this. This is another aspect of the debate which is centring on Ireland's economic fortunes. If one is going to criticise Government policy, one should at least get one's figures right and not scare the hell out of people in the country.