THE PLIGHT of Irish emigrants was highlighted when the Dáil heard “shocking” reports about the burial in mass graves of impoverished Irish people who lived in Britain.

During the Dáil debate on the Finance Bill John Deasy (FG, Waterford) referred to a media report about “hundreds of impoverished Irish people with no known family, who are buried in unmarked mass graves in London by the local councils”.

He highlighted the report to emphasise the case of self-employed people and their difficulties in accessing the Jobseeker’s Allowance and other social welfare benefits. These were the people who were emigrating and “they are the entrepreneurs and self-starters, the ones who have created jobs in this country”.

Mr Deasy said that in Southwark Council recently “half of the 50 people whose funerals [were] organised and funded by the borough [were] elderly Irish men.

“Each borough has slightly different procedures but the majority of those buried in pauper’s graves are laid to rest without anything to identify them and in graves with the remains of up to 25 other people. That is shocking.”

Mr Deasy said he raised the London burials to highlight “the net effect of what has happened to our economy for many of the people who will not be returning. Some may think this is a slightly dramatic way of portraying the issue.”

There are those who go abroad and thrive, he said, but many people do not do so well.

He recalled being in a pub in the Bronx in New York in 1987 when “a line of middle-aged men were reading newspapers three days old and drinking pints of Guinness. Many told me they had not been back to Ireland in 20 years.”

He said emigration was the main topic for constituents who were concerned about “their children leaving and the safeguarding of small businesses”.

Self-employed people would be hit again with the 3 per cent surcharge on incomes above €100,000, he said. Few of the participants in back-to-education schemes were self-employed because if their business failed and they applied for the scheme they would not qualify if their spouse earned more than €400 a week.

He said that “if the percentage contribution for self-employed people is to be raised, at the very least they should be entitled to the basic facets of State retraining”.

Mr Deasy said “these people are leaving the system completely”.