Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Not only the cut but the literature sent out by the Department has been described by others as an invitation to emigrate by the Department of Social Protection. The literature informs people about jobs in Canada. It is a pro-emigration policy. Of the 50,900 people emigrating, two out of every three has a degree. We have a skills shortage and yet 600 degree holders per week leave the country. The youth unemployment rate in Europe for those between 15 and 24 years of age is 23%. In Ireland the rate is 30.4% but if one were to add all those who emigrated in the past four years our youth unemployment rate would have been 50% and more.

Those at the top end of the public service, politicians and the semi-State sector as it was, are clinging on to what they have, yet the next generation is being asked to emigrate or stay at home and pay off a debt which has an interest rate of €7 billion per year. Those are the options which are being given. The next generation is being given the option to stay at home and pay off the debt or emigrate. It appears that the pro-emigration policy, of which this is a part, will have the desired effect.