Published: Wednesday, 25th January, 2012 5:00pm

Emigration leading to 'brain drain' in region

Athlone travel agent tells of seeing whole families move abroad

Emigration is causing a 'brain drain' in the Midlands with many of the region's brightest and most talented young people leaving in search of work overseas, it was stated this week.

Athlone travel agent Marie Grenham said that over the last two years her business had seen a marked increase in the number of people calling to enquire about moving abroad.

While many of these cases involved young men and women who were travelling with friends, she had also seen instances of whole families leaving the country.

"We have seen a few young families moving away, which is very sad. They tend to leave when their children are around the ages of 4 to 6, because if the children are older than that they are too settled," she said.

"One man was saying that it nearly killed his wife when she was locking the door behind them to leave. All you hope is that they will settle in their new home, but it's the initial leaving that's hard and it's very tough on the grandparents to see them go too."

Ms Grenham was one of a number of local people who spoke to the Westmeath Independent this week about the toll emigration was taking on families and communities in Westmeath and Roscommon.

Among them was Danny Sammon, the chairman of Tubberclair GAA club. Tubberclair won the Westmeath Intermediate Championship in 2009 but were relegated last year after six of the championship winning team moved abroad.

"There was just no work. These are very well-educated lads, some of them are engineers, and there wasn't anything here for them," he commented.

"In terms of emigration and injuries we were probably the worst-hit club in Westmeath last year."

There was controversy when Finance Minister Michael Noonan recently said that emigration was a "lifestyle choice" for many people.

However, Mr Sammon said most of those who emigrated from the Tubberclair area didn't want to leave.

"Country parishes tend to be very united and these lads would have grown up together and gone to school together. They don't want to go," he said.

"They'd be asking the club if there was any way we could help set them up with some work, even just for a summer, but there's no work going at the moment."

He said the relatively large population in Tubberclair and Glasson meant the club wasn't in a position where it was struggling to field a team, but two more of the club's players had left for Australia in recent weeks and he doesn't know "when it's going to end."

Deputy Denis Naughten felt Minister Noonan's comments on the issue were hurtful to many families whose relatives had been forced to move abroad.

"I think (the Minister) should have clarified what he was talking about better than he did. While he didn't intend for his comments to be hurtful, I think it was hurtful to many families to suggest their loved ones had moved abroad voluntarily.

"There is nobody leaving this country voluntarily at the moment, and I think those comments were not fully thought through," he said.

Deputy Naughten, who was expelled from Fine Gael over his stance against Roscommon Hospital cutbacks, said it was difficult to determine how big an impact emigration was having in this region.

"Every one of the local GAA clubs in South Roscommon is losing players for the coming season, so there's no doubt that it is having an impact. The reality is that a lot of people, particularly those working in construction, were left with no other choice but to move abroad.

"There are also cases of people who went abroad a few years ago and would now like to return home but can't because there are no jobs."

He said the problem wasn't as severe in South Roscommon as in other parts of the county, because there "luckily there are still has a number of significant employers" in the Athlone area.

Monskland priest Fr John McManus said a substantial number of well-educated young people were now leaving these shores.

"I couldn't put figures on it, but when speaking to their parents and aunts and uncles you do hear about young people branching off to England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand."

Fr McManus said this was particularly prevalent among men and women in their early 20s.

"It is a 'brain drain' of gifted, talented and educated young people. Please God we will turn the corner in the medium to long term, but for now emigration is something that I would be aware of and I think it's sad."

Fr McManus commented that: "People don't want to constantly read bad news, but at the same time I think it's important to be aware of the real change that is taking place in the country."