From examining the statistical profile of Irish women's migration, we turn now to consider the rhetorical pronouncements made on emigration in general, and women's migration in particular, in the post-independence era. Emigration was debated in the Dáil and Seanad in discussions on the economy, rural depopulation, employment policy and ‘national policy’, sometimes in heated exchanges. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that governmental debates or expressions of opinion by political parties have been raised in interviews with emigrants themselves. We don't know, therefore, what emigrants made of the many public pronouncements on their motivations, behaviours, experiences and desires. The parliamentary debates on emigration have not featured strongly in historical work on the area, despite being mined extensively by those examining the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the 1937 Constitution, for example. They are a fruitful area of research in tracing dominant attitudes at the highest level of government, opinions across political parties and from deputies representing diverse areas, many of which were the key emigration sending sites. Unlike the aims of successive British governments, Irish governments had no interest in promoting emigration for the benefit of the nation; the paradigm for discussing emigration was always one centred on loss, and any suggestions to the contrary were met with rather hysterical condemnation.