Emigrants urged to follow flame home

The Government wants to encourage emigrants, who were forced to leave as a result of the recession, to return home and help grow the economy.

Marking the exit from the €67.5bn EU/IMF bailout, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said those who have suffered the most were the hundreds of thousands who lost their jobs and homes, and young people who were forced to emigrate.

“We want to reverse both trends. We want to get the people who lost their jobs back to work and we want to encourage our very bright emigrants to come back into the country and help grow the economy,” he said.

Figures show over 200,000 people have left Ireland since 2008, but attracting them back home will be a tough task, with 390,000 still out of work.

Mr Noonan admitted that on Monday, when people wake up in the post-bailout world, they won’t notice any difference, other than that the politicians they elected would be taking the crucial decisions of the future.

However, he said there will be no cause for the country to “go mad”, insisting the Government will have to remain committed to making “prudent” economic and social decisions.

He said it was the people of Ireland who were the real heroes and heroines of the bailout story.

“They have had their taxes increased, they have had their services cut drastically, some of them, particularly public servants, have had very serious pay cuts. Everybody has had cuts in their pensions as well and, yet, they sustained the programme and have continued to support the Government,” Mr Noonan added.

Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin described the exit as a milestone.

“We have a much greater control over our own destiny into the future and that’s a huge testament to the fortitude and the forbearance of the people of Ireland who rolled up their sleeves and understood that a job of work had to be done.”

Asked by a foreign journalist why the Irish public had not rioted on the streets, as witnessed in other countries, Mr Howlin replied that Ireland had undergone its own democratic revolution in the 2011 general election. He said the people rioted in the polling booth and ousted Fianna Fáil, which had been in government for most of the previous 40 years.

Meanwhile, as the EU estimated Ireland’s growth figure for 2014 at 1.7% — which is below the Government’s projection of 2% — Government economist John McCarthy said it would not have a detrimental effect on the budget targets for next year, as “wriggle room” was already built into the numbers.

John Fitzgerald of the ESRI said he believed Ireland would come in below its deficit target of 4.8% of GDP for 2014, and below the 3% target for 2015.