Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is just more than a year since we had statements on the diaspora in the Dáil so it seems like the perfect time to measure the achievements of the Government based on the commitments made then. Last year, the Government welcomed the publication of the Indecon economic survey of problems associated with returning emigrants. Is the Minister of State satisfied with his Department's actions so far on the 30 targeted recommendations? I may not have seen it but has the Department provided a dashboard indicating progress on each of the recommendations, as the other working groups have done? Those recommendations included, among others, concerns about barriers to housing for returning people, both in accessing mortgages and for people who need to access social housing and joining the housing waiting list.

There were related matters, including concerns relating to employment, health and childcare, welfare, education and entrepreneurship. Of course, we should also include the voting rights issue. We can send a big and strong message to our diaspora stating that they matter to us if we have the referendum on voting rights and campaign vigorously on it. I encourage everybody to get involved in that. I particularly encourage families that have members living abroad to get involved. I certainly intend playing an active role in that. I commend my colleague, Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, on all the work he has done in leading the Sinn Féin team in the Seanad in that respect.

The undocumented Irish were mentioned earlier. We must keep the collective pressure on. Everybody, including the Minister of State, has to deal with cases where Irish citizens have been picked up abroad and incarcerated. They live in fear because they are undocumented. There has been multi-generational emigration so even if we go back to the 1960s, there are people whose parents were born abroad but the people themselves might have been born here. If those people have children who require an Irish passport, they have to go through the naturalisation process, which is expensive. I know people with three, four or five children and it costs thousands of euro to get passports for them. Will the Minister of State examine the naturalisation process? It is the policy of successive Governments in the main that have driven people away through no fault of their own.

I also mention returning emigrants seeking to access the young farmers' scheme, in particular, along with the national reserve scheme. It was cited in the Indecon report and the same rules must apply to everybody. However, there should be some flexibility on this, particularly with respect to qualifications and income thresholds. Much more can be done in that respect. Car insurance has been identified by all parties as a major barrier as well. The working group on the cost of insurance in its latest report indicates that the issue of high insurance costs associated with returning emigrants is outstanding. We must again keep the pressure on the motor industry to sort out those matter. I acknowledge the work that has been done but ministerial orders could be implemented in many areas, which could lead to tangible results for the diaspora.