Brain Drain

national | migration | other press Saturday January 04, 2014 21:16 by Wayne Flanagan Tobin - Local election candidate Pembroke South Dock

Brain Drain

Brain Drain - by Wayne Flanagan Tobin Local Election Candidate

Unfortunately this country is experiencing a ‘brain drain’ as we lose our many of our best graduates and hardest workers to emigration. Former President Mary Robinson recently noted that it hardly matters whether young people are skilled or unskilled in relation to experiencing unemployment.

This country currently lacks the kind of fresh ideas that will be absolutely critical if we are to successfully tackle the scourge of youth unemployment. I am asking you therefore to support young people like myself to forge further links with other young people in the community and to develop innovative proposals to stimulate our local and national economy. We need to examine the issue of micro- financing and to work closely with local companies.

A report for the National Youth Council of Ireland states that this current wave of mass emigration will leave “irreparable scars for this generation” and highlights how we must re-build sustainable communities to enable them to absorb Irish people wanting to return home.

Since July I have spoken to leading experts in this field and as a local councillor I will have a strong platform to lobby on behalf of this cohort that is already being labelled “the forgotten generation”. At a local level and as a former youth worker I will manage sustainable projects in our communities for young people when they leave school and help them to progress to further education.

I need your help however. I need your support in helping these fresh ideas to advance into the public domain. It would really help if you would guarantee me your 1st preference vote in this year’s local election and change the way you vote. Together we can generate ideas, work with business leaders and ensure we have a healthy growing community. This sense of hopelessness and the associated brain drain must end. Together we must motivate our young people to think big.