Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his consistent interest in this area. The report from Indecon, which was the entity commissioned to prepare the report on the barriers that exist for returning emigrants, will be published very shortly. It has forensically assessed each of those barriers and the reasons they occur and has suggested some very innovative solutions which we hope to implement. The Senator is correct in saying that Ireland, quite rightly, is proud of its long and historic track record in supporting vulnerable communities and countries across the world.The Senator mentioned francophone Africa. I just returned from Senegal last week where Ireland as a long-committed member of the Global Partnership for Education - indeed one of the founders of the Global Partnership for Education in 2002 - was able to commit to doubling its funding for that particular endeavour over the next three years in partnership with a number of other countries with a similar interest in ensuring that the incredible societal transformation that occurred in this country over the past 50 years through education can also occur in other countries where young people are equally entitled to share in that success.