ABOUT 100,000 people had left the State in the past two years, Joe Costello (Labour) told the Dáil.

They were the brightest and the best, he said.“We are exporting them again as we did in the 1950s, the 1970s and the 1980s, but this time it is more concentrated and legislation has been introduced to force them out.

“We are shunning the young people of our country . . . telling them they are not wanted, that they are a burden on the State.

“We are telling them to get out or starve. That is the message that is coming from this legislation.”

Speaking during the resumed debate on the Social Welfare Bill, Mr Costello criticised the Government’s policy on jobs. “There is nothing in this or any other legislation that works pragmatically towards job creation . . . or placements for education and training.”

Community employment schemes had been cut even though increasing numbers of people were seeking them, he said. Lone parents could no longer get on to such schemes.

Martin Ferris (Sinn Féin) said the Government’s claim to be introducing measures to discourage people from defrauding the taxpayer might carry more weight were it not for its actions in other areas.

Only yesterday, the new management at Anglo Irish Bank had admitted the Irish people were unlikely to see a return on much of the money pumped into repairing the “criminal negligence” of those who were there before the State had to intervene. “I am not arguing that there is no such thing as social welfare fraud, nor that people who are guilty of defrauding the system ought not be brought to book,” he added.

“People who defraud the system are committing an offence and directly impacting on those who are genuinely entitled to support.”