Kilrush councillor highlights emigration drain

KILRUSH Town Councillor Ian Lynch is asking that the Government establish a Department of Emigration to help support the thousands of Irish emigrants leaving the country. Councillor Lynch told The Clare Champion that he knows of four families who have left West Clare. He completed the Leaving Certificate in 1995 and says that while his contemporaries didn’t immediately emigrate, several have left the country in recent times.
“In my year, we had 58 people sitting the Leaving Certificate. Even after college, only about eight of us headed off on our travels but now in an era of uncertainty, as many as 20 of us have emigrated to start a better life. We are not even part of the emigration generation. The generations after us, especially those who completed their Leaving from 2005 onwards, find themselves graduating from third level with no job prospects,” Councillor Lynch stated.
Emigration significantly hit the Kilrush Community School class of 2001.
“The class of 2001 had 38 students complete their leaving and a staggering 20 of these have emigrated. One particular friend, who completed the Leaving Certificate in 2007, has had over 20 friends emigrate and out of that number five have returned home as they found establishing a new life extremely difficult.
“What is even a sadder situation is when we see entire families leaving our towns and villages in West Clare. I personally know of four families that have had to emigrate in the last few months,” he added.
At this Thursday’s June meeting of Kilrush Town Council, Councillor Lynch will ask the Taoiseach to establish a Department of Emigration, which he believes would assist people leaving Ireland and help them obtain information in relation to their new destination and ensure returning emigrants are given information on social welfare entitlements, along with direction on returning to the workforce.
“We have all seen and heard of the mass exodus from our shores in recent times. When I finished my leaving, travelling the world was an exciting adventure of a lifetime. Now our youth are going not knowing when or if they will be able to return home. The figures are startling,” Councillor Lynch commented.
“The lack of a dedicated Department of Emigration is causing confusion and emigrants often have inaccurate information in preparing for change. People will often exaggerate work and prospects when they emigrate as they do not want to have a feeling of failure and want to convey an image of success but for many, this is not reality. There can be huge issues especially for families in relation to accommodation, work and very often the huge cost of health insurance. These vary from country to country and even from state to state. a central point must be provided to ensure that people who emigrate do not end up in unfortunate situations,” the Fine Gael councillor concluded.