andMr. McQuillan asked the Taoiseach whether he will give the sources upon which he based his statement at the Galway Chamber of Commerce on 21st January, 1961, that the figure of 64,000 emigrants to Britain alone in 1960 who received insurance cards was artifically inflated by (a) migratory workers, (b) various other classes with occasional jobs, (c) those who return after a short period for personal reasons and (d) emigrants who return permanently, to the extent that the true figure for emigration was probably nearer to half the British figure.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Figures for Emigration.
7.
The conclusion I drew in the statement referred to related to net emigration to Britain and was based on common knowledge and on the trend of sea- and air-passenger statistics.
Is the Taoiseach prepared to elaborate on the points mentioned at (a), (b), (c) and (d)?
I have no precise figures.
Can we take it that the Taoiseach is assuming again in this matter, as the Minister for Transport and Power and the Minister for Industry and Commerce have been assuming at every chapel gate in the country?
These facts are common knowledge.
Can the Taoiseach say how he reconciles the statement that the figure for emigration last year was lower than in 1959 in view of the fact——
I never said that.
Deputy Childers said it. Sixty-four thousand people were registered for employment in Britain last year, which was an increase of 8,000 on the year before, and how could it be said by members of the Government that fewer people emigrated——.
That is not a question.
I can appreciate the Deputy's disappointment that the country is going ahead.
(Interruptions.)
It is an after-dinner speech.
It is the Fine Gael Árd Fheis which is on these days.
Is the Taoiseach aware that according to the net outward passenger movements by sea and air 44,400 left the country in 1960 as against 38,400 in 1959?
What I said was that the numbers which went out in the past two years were fewer than the numbers in the mid-1950s, when the Deputy was in the Government.
Mr. Ryan
Is it not a fact that migratory workers use a card the first time they go out but they do not use one again, so that the Taoiseach was not being accurate when he said that migratory workers were inflating the figure?
The answer to the Deputy's question is in the negative.
Mr. Ryan
It is not in the negative.