On Tuesday Michael Noonan delivered an election Budget full of initiatives that the Government has been quick to boast about. TDs will be knocking on doors soon to spread word of its benefits. But will the Budget have any impact on emigrants who want to return to Ireland?
This week marks my fourth year in Australia. I am in my 30s now and, like a lot of my Irish friends here, am in the process of deciding whether to put down roots in Sydney or make my way back home.
We have heard a lot of rhetoric from Government Ministers this year about the need to help people like me, who left during the recession, to return to Ireland. The Government’s first diaspora strategy, published in March, includes a section on returning that sets out the barriers for emigrants, including the lack of job opportunities and affordable housing. The Budget was an opportunity for the Government to offer a substantial incentive for emigrants to move back.
During his speech the Minister for Finance made a number of references to “returning emigrants”, but no measure targeted us specifically.
The changes to the universal social charge, the long overdue introduction of statutory paternity leave, the increase in the minimum wage, the extension of free GP care to the under-12s, and the further extension of free preschool childcare are all welcome, especially for young families, but they are unlikely to change anyone’s mind about moving back to Ireland instead of staying put abroad.
Few of my Irish friends in Sydney paid any heed to the Budget. Neither was there much reaction on the Irish-in-Australia social-media sites I follow, which is very telling. The Government might like to think that the lower universal social charge will entice emigrants home, but it’s had no traction among the Irish here.
Richard Bruton, the Minister for Jobs, had been pushing for the marginal tax rate to be cut to 30 per cent for skilled migrants. Something like that would have made Irish people abroad take notice. But it was probably viewed as too problematic politically. How could they define a skilled migrant? How could they justify favouring returning emigrants over those who had stayed in Ireland and weathered the storm?
When I left, in 2011, I had just received my PhD from the University of Limerick. I had little or no chance of finding work in Ireland. I had been hoping that the Budget would increase funding for higher education, to build on the often-used promise to create a “knowledge economy”.
I have a good job here, researching social policy at the University of Technology Sydney. My Irish friends abroad also have good, well-paid jobs. But the decision to stay or return is about more than employment opportunities, or how much income tax we pay.
Having had a great lifestyle and access to good services in places like Australia and Canada for the past few years, we want something similar if we return to Ireland. We want to come back to a country that is building towards creating affordable, accessible services and liveable, inclusive spaces.
But there seems to be a total lack of long-term vision, particularly for areas outside Dublin.
Introducing the diaspora strategy in March, Enda Kenny said that 2016 “will be the year where the number of our people coming home will be greater than the number of people who leave”. The Budget will do little to spark that mass return. It was an election Budget, and without a vote the Irish abroad didn’t count.
- In conversation with Ciara Kenny
