Seanad debates

Wednesday, 21 May 2003

Decentralisation Programme: Statements.

 

We have a very successful factory, and I have often congratulated Senator Leyden, who was instrumental over ten or 15 years in bringing that factory to Boyle. These things will not be forgotten. I have said this on the record of Roscommon County Council and I say it again in the House. Small industries mean much to the survival of towns such as Boyle. Like most towns, we have a new school, but unfortunately in these areas there is a cycle of emigration which continues throughout our lives. I draw to the Minister's attention what is happening. When people leave school at 18 they go away to college, to Dublin or the UK or the USA. When they have raised their families they relocate to towns like Boyle and we think it is great that they have come back. Unfortunately, however, the cycle has gone on since the 1960s and the children of that generation have grown up and are going away again. I have no doubt that in another 20 years they will come back to raise their children in Boyle, but we will have lost 20 of the most productive years of their lives. The cycle must be stopped.

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