PJ Murphy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and thank him for his attendance today. I congratulate him on his appointment.

I take this opportunity to raise the subject of the largely forgotten Irish diaspora in Argentina. Between 1820 and 1920, and assisted in no small way by the Galway and Loughrea man, Fr. Anthony Fahy, more than 100,000 Irish migrants left for Argentina, predominantly from the midlands, Wexford and many parts of the west.

Irish migrants have been pioneers in the development of agriculture, the educational system, politics and culture in that country, where Irish Catholic migrants received a welcome like no other. Today, the approximately 650,000 Argentines of Irish descent retain strong cultural ties to their ancestral home through their music, sport, religion and agricultural practices. However, young Irish Argentines feel somewhat abandoned by their ancestral homeland when they attempt to travel here to study or work. Absolutely no preferential treatment is offered to these fourth and fifth generation members of the Irish diaspora. In a modern Ireland that is desperately short of labour, I would ask that we closely examine the potential to reach out to young Irish Argentines to return to their ancestral home to help to fill some of the vast gaps that we find in our labour market today. I would like to see this objective included in the new strategy for Ireland's diaspora.