Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1126. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide any available data on the proportion of graduates in each of the years 2000 to 2025 who emigrated within five years of graduation; and whether such data is gathered by the CSO Graduate Outcomes Survey or Revenue-HEA linkage. [60957/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not have access to statistics on emigration.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) runs an annual Graduate Outcomes Survey which looks at the main activity of graduates (i.e. Employment, Further Study, Seeking Employment or Other) nine months after graduation. While graduates in employment are asked about the location of their employment, this is not the same as "emigrated" or domiciled outside of Ireland.

The latest Graduate Outcomes Survey information available looks at the class of 2023. Of those in employment nine months after graduation, 91.8% were located in Ireland.

The CSO's Educational Longitudinal Database is a statistical framework for the compilation and analysis of learner outcomes over many years. It matches data from sources such as the HEA, Revenue and the Department of Social Protection to examine learner outcomes.

In 2022 the CSO published a Higher Education Outcomes report looking at outcomes for students from HEA-funded institutions. There is no data on emigration produced as part of this report. Individuals are categorised as "Not Captured" if they cannot be found in any administrative datasets - i.e. they did not report earnings to Revenue, claim a Social Welfare payment or enrol in further or higher education. Most of this group is assumed to have emigrated but there is no definitive indicator available for this.

The attached data shows the proportion of graduates from 2010 - 2019 record as "Not Captured" in each year between 2011 and 2020. The data does not distinguish between Irish students and non-Irish students, and so the "Not Captured" group includes graduates from abroad returning to their home country after graduating as well as Irish students moving abroad.