Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When one goes from door to door, one learns about the number of people struggling with emigration. I cannot come in here and highlight the negative effects of emigration enough. One might say people between 18 and 21 have chosen to take a few years out and travel the world but many people emigrating are my age and older, and they include people with children. People are taking children out of school and emigrating because both parents cannot get jobs. Emigration has a significant damaging effect on society. It breaks up the families of those affected. Significant milestones in life, such as birthdays, first Holy Communions and even weddings, happen thousands of miles away from grandparents.

Emigration also has a negative economic effect because the youthful energetic element of the economy is being removed from it. Football clubs are finding it hard to field teams. The level of emigration and the pain and suffering it has caused can never be overestimated. Emigration is a real problem and is happening daily on foot of the policies the Government is following.

Proper job creation cannot happen in this State until we get growth levels above 2%. This will not happen on the basis of depending on international markets. The Government must step into the domestic market with investment. Until this happens, we will see a stagnant labour force. The second and important point is that the other element the Government can deal with is the costs faced by businesses, including utility and rental costs and professional fees. These are not being tackled either. The county enterprise boards have been in limbo since 2008 and we still have not seen the issue they face resolved.

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