OPINION: Emigration – the next big issue

The Government might think it has a big problem with immigration, but that problem will be nothing compared to the one it will have with emigration. Saying that this country is losing its young professional people is an understatement – as the Government will discover at general election time. Every Irish person who leaves home affects people, families and communities.
Irish people are leaving in droves. This is not a seasonal migration like tattie-hokers or labourers seeking building work for a few months. This is the leaving of our next generation and loss of future generations, a brain drain.
We are losing those in whom we invested third-level education. You name them, they are all going – doctors, nurses, teachers, technicians, engineers and other professionals, alongside semi-skilled professionals and others.
It is not acceptable. We can argue that all graduates owe the State something after their educational investment. Some call for a five-year commitment to work in a state job on graduation as a payback. At present, we educate them, train them and export them.
We can see in healthcare the number of doctors and nurses on whom we depend (and thankfully, who we welcome) from Asia.
We have crazy situations in teaching where some schools have to depend on unqualified people to take classes. Other schools face the ordeal of advertising for a teacher, then appointing one, only to be asked after a few months for a ‘career break’ so that the teacher can go off to the Middle East to work tax-free. Meanwhile, back home, the school is back at square one looking for a teacher.
None of these issues are being adequately dealt with by the Government. And they haven’t been for successive governments. What are we really thinking as citizens when we look at the likes of Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris – all former health ministers who failed miserably in that portfolio? How is it that some of those who led us into a major financial crisis are still at the helm? The others are still counting their generous government pay-offs.
Do we really think that voting for the same people will yield a different result?
While government mouthpieces will have us believe that all is well and ‘we never had it so good’, the reality is different. Note also how the mainstream media will target those who oppose the Government, from parties to individual politicians.
The reality is that everything costs more. Yet, still we expect change as we wait for another two government-imposed excise increases on transport and home-heating fuel before the year is out. Whether we like it not, to ensure change we must vote change. It’s as simple as that. Change will not come with the same politicians.
We are where we are because of those in power. Health and housing are in a mess. Local government is a laughing stock. With the demise of our local town councils (thanks to Fine Gael/Labour) we are at the lowest rung of the local government ladder in Europe.
Republican Sinn Féin had the right idea with Éire Nua – restoring power to each province and enabling access to national and European funds from a regional (rather than Dublin only) basis. All the Government could do was establish regional assemblies, which in effect are toothless bodies.
The Government’s website, gov.ie, tells us: “The Regional Assemblies source European funding for Regional Programmes, they promote coordinated public services, they monitor proposals which may impact on their areas, and they advise public bodies of the regional implications of their policies and plans.” The reality is that most people are not even aware of their existence.
In essence, the country is not working. There is no leadership, just more of the ‘same old, same old’. There can only be change when we, the people, create that change. That means we have to vote change.
Last Friday’s vote was a pointer, but the general election is where it matters. People will vote for a local councillor regardless of party affiliation. At national level the story is different. That’s where the change is needed.
Emigration will soon affect most families as it did generations ago. Meanwhile, our politicians continue to waste our time and theirs.