Since the formation of the Irish Republic, my family comes from 5 generations of north and south inner city Dublin, over 1000 true blue dubs came from these unions. I lived in the wonderful suburb of Ballymun were my children were raised. My second son was the first person in these 5 generations to get a degree. We proudly attended his conferral of a degree in structural engineering in St Patricks Cathedral, and to be honest we all believed his future was extremely rosy. Little did we know what was coming?
He can not find work in this country and is now emigrating FOR WORK, nothing else. He did the travelling bit after university and tried to establish a career in Ireland, but he can not do it, it’s proving impossible.
He has been used as an example of how young people can achieve a successful education to his younger cousins.
Now it is not such a good example to give these younger children this example as it now appears that if you get an education, then you have to emigrate to get work.
As a father I feel extremely annoyed over this. My whole family are broken hearted and worried that he will never come back. His mother and aunties and uncles are worried sick about him emigrating and all I can do is sit back, watch and let it happen.
What is particularly annoying is the government is making no effort what so ever to help graduates just like him in all spheres of subjects. Architects, Engineers, Solicitors, the list is endless are all looking to emigrate for work, and the government sits idly by and watches like I do. However I am not a player in the whole game and as an experienced voluntary community development worker, I can clearly see that a significant player i.e. the government is not even in the game.
There is no logic in Ireland Inc (bankrupt as we are) in continuing to educate young people so that they can be employed in other countries. We should be creating employment opportunities here for these people, and at this point in time the main source of investment in employment has to be the government. Never mind investing in banks, they are not going to create any more jobs other than their own. The government should invest in Ireland Inc to provide the infrastructure that every modern business needs, fast broadband easily accessed and reasonable priced, cheaper electricity / gas and fuel. Better roads, better sewage, etc etc etc, to allow business people to invest their money in their business, and thus create employment, and ultimately increased taxes for the exchequer.
It is a simple concept really.
When I consider the amount of corruption that has emanated from the higher echelons of Irish society over the past 3 decades, I can not help thinking that maybe I should not have encouraged him to get an education, maybe then he could stay here, join a political party that wields a lot of power, and hey presto he would have all his needs looked after by his political friends. I could have taught him to be a gangster, then not only would he stay in Ireland, but if he got caught all he needs to do is give the government half his money and voila the other half is legitimate. The level of hypocrisy that goes on in Ireland never ceases to amaze me. The scenario above is presented as a pragmatic way to deal with gangsters. The government has created more ways to launder illegal money, than anybody can keep up with, its a joke really for any government to be condoning this type of activity, even if it is for pragmatic reasons. The financial scandals are showing that the more money you have (no matter how you got it) the less likely you are to be prosecuted or most importantly, you are highly unlikely to give up your money, no matter what happens.
Today the government announced that old age pensioners are to be targeted in an effort to cut back the cost of providing them with a meagre amount of money to live on. All public service are being curtailed. Frontline public servants are losing their jobs. A huge number of senior people are being allowed to retire early with fancy lump sums and pension arrangements, while they know full well they will be rehired as consultants. The little people on the bottom do not get any such luxury. Contracts are not renewed, staff out sick find there is no position to return to work etc, and the public finds access to services more difficult, education cutbacks all over the country, teachers on the dole, employed teachers expected to better with less, etc etc. I do not need to go on anymore about this, we all know the issues.
And what does the government do. It’s busy saving the Euro. The deputy prime minister says it’s good for graduates to emigrate. For the last 30 years her party said it was immoral for Britain to be offering our graduates jobs and thus creating a brain drain on Ireland, NOW EMIGRATION IS A GOOD THING, what planet are these people on?
Either way the helplessness that I feel at the moment is reflective of the people as a whole, and it appears by the time we get to an election, it will be far too late to salvage anything. The government may think they can go back to Europe with the begging bowl out, but that will not yield any worthwhile results. The Euro is in freefall and I doubt if the German people still feel obligated to prop up the currency anymore. The political attempt to unite Europe has fallen flatly on its face and its political handlers will be written in history as failures.
What is absolutely amazing about this is the people of all European nations were quite willing to co-operate and make the unification a success, but the actions of a very small minority of very powerful people has brought down the whole house of cards. History will not be kind to those people and they will be vilified in movies, and song, and art and literature.
I hope they can look in the mirror and like what is looking back, because they are not fooling anybody but themselves.
