EMIGRATION WAS providing a safety valve for the Government, Labour employment spokesman Willie Penrose claimed.

“Ireland’s young, educated workforce have ambitions, but at least 100,000 people have left our shores in the past 15 months,” he added. “Many of them are under 25 years of age.”

Mr Penrose said mass emigration was something Irish people thought they had left behind in the 1940s and 1950s and would never resume.

One in three young people under 25 years was on the dole, he said.

“I am not here to be a knocker because we all feel the economic impact, but is there anything meaningful the Government can do?” he asked.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Batt O’Keeffe said the trade strategy, stretching into 2015, envisaged the creation of 300,000 jobs.

IDA and Enterprise Ireland alone had clearly indicated that they could create 30,000 jobs, which was a significant increase.

“We can see that this strategy is working because foreign direct investment has confidence in Ireland,” Mr O’Keeffe added.

Some 850 additional jobs were to be created at Intel in Leixlip, Co Kildare, giving a signal to the rest of the world that Ireland was the place to locate, he said.

“Ireland has the best labour skills and outstanding operational efficiencies, in addition to being much more competitive than it was previously,” Mr O’Keeffe added.

Mr Penrose urged Mr O’Keeffe to re-examine the recruitment moratorium to ensure that additional personnel would be made available to the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to secure such opportunities.