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JUNIOR MINISTER JOHN Perry has come in for criticism after claiming in the Dáil yesterday that there are people emigrating “by choice”.

Perry, the Minister of State for Small Business, was answering questions from the opposition and specifically claims from Sinn Féin that nine people are emigrating from the State every hour when he said: “There’s people going by choice.

I know several young people that are quite delighted to go to the US if they can get into it, or Canada if they have the required qualifications.

His comments were described as offensive and disingenuous by opposition TDs with Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary saying that most of those who had emigrated “would be happier here at home”.

Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín said that “most emigration is forced emigration”.

Perry added: “There is certain balance. For highly educated people, emigration was a matter of choice.”

Read: Where in the world are Irish people emigrating to?

Noonan: Young emigrants ‘not driven away by unemployment’