Emigration "A Lifestyle Choice" Says Noonan

"It's a small island. A lot of people want to get off the island."

With those words, Finance Minister Michael Noonan landed himself in hot water after claiming that for some people, emigration was a lifestyle choice.

The remarks sparked furious demands for an apology from Mr Noonan's political opponents, but the Minister himself claims his critics were taking his remarks out of context.

"I am being quoted out of context. I said for some people it was a lifestyle choice. Some people might want to go to Australia for a couple of years and come back home again. Other people want to get married abroad. It's a lifestyle choice," he said.

"But for the most of emigrants it's forced emigration and I drew attention in particular to 100,000 who became redundant in the building industry and I said they were forced to work in Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom."

Mr Noonan made the initial remarks off-the-cuff in a somewhat glib answer to a question at a press conference following the latest review of the Irish economy by the bailout troika.

He pointed to the experience of his own adult children who had gone abroad to work.

"A lot of people go to Australia, it's not being driven by unemployment at home, it's driven by a desire to see another part of the world and live there. I have five adult children, three of them living and working abroad. I don't think any of the three could be described as an emigrant."

But his opponents spotted an open goal in terms of publicity and went straight for the jugular.

"Regardless of whether or not his comments were taken out of context, the Minister must recognise that comments such as these are causing huge hurt throughout the State as thousands of families have lost loved ones to forced emigration," said Sinn Fein's Padraig Mac Lochlainn.

Willie O'Dea, Fianna Fáil's jobs spokesman, demanded that Mr Noonan apologise for the "disgusting" remarks.

"For the minister to be so dismissive of the hurt that emigration has caused thousands of families is astonishing.

"There is an undeniable link between the high rate of unemployment and the number of people seeking work abroad out of economic necessity."

But Mr Noonan did have one defender - one of Ireland's most successful businessmen, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary.

"He is dead right, except, politically, it is not f***ing acceptable. I went abroad for a year. Most people I know went abroad," Mr O'Leary said.

"This idea that emigration is like getting on a potato ship in 1845, never to be seen again, is bulls***. They are all coming home at Christmas and at Easter."

"We don't have any God-given right to have a job here in Ireland. There is a great opportunity, particularly for young people, to go abroad for a couple of years. It is their choice whether or not they want to come back

"Jaysus, it is like the Famine all over again. I see nothing wrong with emigration if it means people who would be unemployed and miserable here in Ireland can go and get a job, whether it is in the UK, US or Australia, at least then they will have the freedom to choose whether they stay abroad or come back.

"It is being stuck here unemployed and drawing the f***ing dole that devastates people."