Leaving for Australia

Sir, – I refer to Laura Kennedy’s article from Australia where she makes some erroneous assertions in relation to emigration from Ireland and the cost of renting living accommodation in Australia (“Thousands of young Irish are leaving but it’s not ‘for the craic'”, Abroad, January 17th). According to the Central Statistics Office, the year ended April 30th, 2023, was the first year since 2016 in which more Irish-born people left the country than returned from living abroad. The excess was 900, with emigration of 30,500 compared with immigration of 29,600. In all previous years there was net immigration of Irish-born people into the country. Personally, I regard the experience which these retuning Irish bring with them to be a very…