EMIGRATION is often to be welcomed, several speakers told the Parnell Summer School in Avondale, Co Wicklow, yesterday.
Senator Joe O'Toole, general secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), said: "A culture of dependency had informed the debate about emigration." The existence of the diaspora was something to be welcomed.
There was nothing wrong with the fact that 10,000 students would have to go to Britain to study. "Let them out there to do the business," he added.
"We can enrich other cultures with our emigrants and giving them votes gives us the benefit of their insight," he told a packed conference centre during the school's centrepiece symposium on "The Impact of Emigration on Ireland".
Senator Marian McGuinness (FF) said the way forward "was to invest in children and give them the skills to compete any where in the world".
In the morning session, Mr Liam Greenslade of the Institute of Irish Studies outlined the poor conditions in which many Irish emigrants lived in Britain. Ms Olive Braiden from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre told the audience: "As the strength and influence of Irish communities worldwide continued to grow, the options for all those leaving became greater." There were still tragic cases, she said, but "the sense of alienation is no longer what it was before the days of the satellite, the internet and the cheap phone call".
Journalist James Downey said that current economic policies meant emigration could worsen again. "I doubt we have a Lemass or Whitaker in our presence to deal with the economic situation," he said.
Mr Sean Duignan, RTE broadcaster, said there was now "an optional transience" that meant emigrants could at least come and go. "That gloom which used to hang over emigrants seems to be lifting," he said.
Mr Eoghan Harris, columnist, told the audience that previous contributions, including Mr Greenslade's, were part of a "victim culture". Mr Harris said that Ireland was not in a position to criticise race relations in Britain. "We cannot even tolerate the travelling community," he said. "He pointed out that one way to (prepare Irish people for emigration was to "get used to the one million Protestants in the North".
Ms Caitriona Ruane, from the Centre for Research and Documentation, said: "Little attention had been given to emigration to Africa, Asia and Latin America. We must remember the Irish priests who were jailed for opposing apartheid. There has been racism from Irish emigrants but we must remember the many progressive emigrants."
Prof Tom Garvin of UCD's politics department said the symposium had not devoted enough time to Ireland's immigration policy. Senator O'Toole agreed, claiming "Ireland was the hardest place to get into in Europe."