Bring them home - O' Súilleabháin

SF Cllr calls for scheme to entice emigrants to come home

A scheme needs to be introduced to enable Irish emigrants forced out over the last six years to come home according to a local Sinn Féin County Councillor.  Cllr Fionntán O' Súilleabháin said that government already offered tax reliefs to enable large companies to bring in high paid executives to work here and now it was high time that similar actions were taken to bring our emigrants home.

Cllr O' Súilleabháin said;

"Over 300,000 people have left this country since the recession began in 2008.  They left because of economic necessity and many hoped that they could return when things began to improve.  The problem is that most will not be able to afford to return home.  The government has no contingency plan for this and the obvious brain drain that not having those people return will mean for the nation, particularly for rural Ireland."

"Sinn Féin is proposing that a fund be created, financed in part by the National Lottery and the EIB, to enable our emigrants to come home.  Home fares and initial accommodation would be acceptable costs for these emigrants to claim in order to get them back here.  Without them the state will suffer.  Rural Ireland is already feeling the drain of losing so many of its brightest and best.  The power of the Diaspora and the goodwill towards them was evident in the success of the gathering in this county last year."

"Currently the government provides a Special Assignee Relief Programme to large international companies which allow them generous tax reliefs to bring high paid executives to work here.  The government would argue that this benefits the economy but no so more than our returning emigrants would benefit.  If schemes like the special assignee relief programme are achievable then so too is a realistic returning emigrants programme."