During our latest workshop LivingStandardsNZ, we were fortunate enough to have Dr John Fitzgerald from the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin Ireland, join us for pizza and a Q&A. Dr Fitzgerald was able to provide a global perspective, talking about his career, comparisons of the New Zealand and Irish economies and about attracting back our best and brightest from overseas. In particular, his ideas about using our diaspora as ambassadors to network overseas and the importance of attracting skilled immigrants provided useful insights into how we can approach the ‘brain drain’ issue in New Zealand. We would like to thank Dr Fitzgerald again for taking the time to visit us at the Institute, his enthusiasm and generosity were greatly appreciated.

John also had an interview with Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand National recently and you can listen to it here.

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