Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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93. To ask the Taoiseach the annual targets for attaining 70,000 returned emigrants per year, in tabular form. [50933/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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This Government’s goal is to support the creation of an additional 200,000 jobs by 2020 with 135,000 outside Dublin and to attract back at least 70,000 emigrants by 200,000. The whole of Government effort to deliver on these objective is the coordinated by the yearly Action Plans for Jobs.

The CSO estimates that between April 2016 and April 2017, 27,400 Irish emigrants returned to Ireland. As the economy continues to grow and the economy approaches full employment, this trend is likely to continue.

Since the first Action Plan for Jobs was launched in early 2012, there are over 224,000 more people at work bringing total employment in the State to almost 2,063,000 by end of Quarter 2, 2017. My Department and agencies have a range of initiatives to connect with Irish emigrants (and others) and outline the careers and entrepreneurial opportunities in Ireland:

- IDA Ireland actively promotes Ireland as a location for new investment and Enterprise Ireland has specific targets to attract entrepreneurs to Ireland with a focused marketing programme underway in international markets.

- Since 2016, My Department is funding Tech/Life Ireland – a partnership with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the Irish Technology Industry to promote brand Ireland as a top destination to pursue a career in technology and attract 3,000 top tech professionals to Ireland each year. Industry is playing an important role in supporting the initiative and driving its development.

- Science Foundation Ireland encourages leading researchers to move to Ireland raising Ireland's profile as a location for excellent research and career advancement. For instance, each year, SFI awards two Saint Patrick Day Science Medals to distinguished Irish scientist, engineer or technology leaders living and working in the USA: one of academic and one for industry.

Ensuring a continued focus on attracting foreign direct investment and maintaining and improving competitiveness is critical to attracting talent back to Ireland.