http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... gn=digests



This is pretty staggering: I did not expect it to be quite so high.

I've lived away for over 10 years. At one stage I knew about 25 people from my University year that were in London / NY. I would say, about 15 of those have moved back at this stage, mostly in the last few years when they got married. Of the 10ish left, 5 intend to move home in the near future, but are in no hurry considering the environment.
The other 5 will never move home as their partners are from places like California / Spain etc and Dublin is a hard sell in comparison (personally I prefer Dublin to Madrid/L.A, but one can see how someone from these places would just never get the Dublin thing!).

Ultimately I think most Irish people intend to return home, and most do.

I think the trend varies, obviously according to economic circumstances. If the economy does not pick up for many years many overseas Irish will put down roots and never return. The longer you are away the harder it can be to go back, in my experience. It's really hard to justify a move back to Ireland at the moment.

I think that's true. Once you've got kids in school, mortgage, social activities and other commitments then any move becomes a more daunting prospect. Personally the trick for me is to never say never whilst at the same time knowing how to value what you've got where you are.

any hard stats on all this?
how many leave and what % never return

Excluding working holiday visas, J1 visas and the like.

Everyone is different of course and each individual has their own circumstances, but this "opinion poll" is pure BS propaganda.

Personally, I've no intention of ever going back. Why on earth would I? I never liked living there anyway, the place used to drive me demented with all its cack-handed assbackwards illogic! And its not like I don't have options worldwide, if by some unforeseen misfortune I fail to get permanent residency here.

Or to put it another way, it the majority are leaving now for lifestyle reasons then why weren't they going for similar reasons back in bubble years?

My own interpretation, and I'm a glass-empty kind of guy, is - if true - this is a vote of no-confidence on the country.

When people left for "lifestyle" reasons in the boom, well, you were leaving Ireland with its boom for, likely, another country in good times. If it didn't work out, there was always the plane back and likely a good job waiting here. So, not a risky proposition.

Now, my intuition would say that with a recession the numbers of people leaving jobs to move to another country should drop - or stay the same at the very most. Sure, tax is going up and spending is going down - some might have to leave in order to earn extra cash to service debts/mortgage - but a person would be and is moving to countries where the labour market has in general tightened up. If a person moves outside of the EU, then it's a case of temp working visas and looking to extend or somehow get sponsored.
A person leaving behind a job, then, for this kind of uncertainty - even if a job is lined up for them - is taking a much bigger risk. Also bear in mind that benefits/entitlements will probably be denied to them if things don't work out and they have to return (a fact that might not be that all well-known). It would take a lot of guts, for me at least, to leave a job and take the "lifestyle" route.

Taking this into account, then, I'm surprised that the percentage could be this high. If the numbers are true, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth for the country and government. If the numbers are wrong, then how wrong must they be? It does seems impossibly high.

W.T.F?





http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 27062.html

Genius or total d*ckhead? Please discuss.

like we pay Pakistan for those doctors propping up our hospitals?

Maybe he could make a start by making Irish Doctors pay their own way though med school before leaving for more lucrative pastures...

He's a dickhead.

Perhaps, but the notion that the Irish taxpayer should educate a bunch of it's citizens for the benefit of other states has got to change.
No?

He also suggested that we do that too - basically that states should pay for the costs of training immigrants. I was sure he was made until I heard that bit; now I am less sure. Personally, I think the individuals should bear at least some of the cost, since they also benefit.

If you were actually leaving an accountable government then maybe I'd feel similar. Sean Fitzpatrick must have played a lot of golf in the last three years. Do we really need another exit tax to ad insult to injury?
There are plenty of people benefitting from Irish citizenship how have never even been to ireland, maybe the first thing the government should do collect a non resident citizen tax from those passport holders.

Ah go on, this is a Father Ted pisstake isn't it.

Larry Duff, Len Brennan, Noel Furlong - which one are you ? you stupid gormless fucker.