Sick of this country

The government's policy seems to be to grow the economy at all costs, with this you need lots of unskilled immigration to do the jobs that there aren't enough Irish people for and that Irish people don't want to do any more. The local shop where I grew up now seems to be mostly staffed by Indians, when I was a kid it was mostly local women who worked there 5 or 6 days a week. You're not going to find a local in Artane and similar areas these days who will work in a Centra for 5 or 6 days a week for a significant amount of time so I can understand why the owners have employed these people who will work their arses off for the opportunity of living in a country like Ireland.

I know the whole asylum seeker thing is a different ball game altogether, but immigration is just a symptom of a growing economy, and unless we approach the economy in a new and unique way we're still going to need lots and lots of unskilled migrants to do menial jobs.

OECD PISA rankings among primary and secondary students in Ireland relative to their peers in other countries are very high in Maths & Reading relative to their peers in other countries. We rank 8th out of 77 countries in Reading, 21st and 22nd in Maths & Science. Relative to the paltry resources placed into Irish schools this is quite an achievement.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/pisa-rankings-irish-teens-among-the-best-at-reading-in-developed-world-1.4102951

Ireland has a population the same size as Alabama in the US. The highest ranking university in Alabama is the University of Alabama (Birmingham) and it ranks between 601-800 in world rankings. I wouldn't read too much into third level rankings as third level is all about money. Where the money goes the higher rankings follow and traditionally we underfund third level in Ireland.

It is government policy to replace mainly emigrating Irish citizens with citizens of foreign countries. This has been going on for years in the health service and there are still thousands of vacancies. They're moving this onto education at present. This is a neo-liberalist policy of getting a skilled worker for as cheap as you can get them and has been going on in the US, UK and Ireland for quite some time re public sector workers.

Meanwhile the planes are full of skilled Irish emigrants leaving.

There are more Irish people returning to Ireland than leaving according to the latest CSO statistics.

Although nearly all doctors leave to work abroad and gain experience, a recent survey showed 85% of them return to live in Ireland.

Are you not voting with a vested interest?

Bear in mind SF will do the exact same if they get into government. Govern for vested interests- i.e. the ones who vote for them.

There will always be people returning as this is their home and they consider it their home where they grew up with their families. The real tragedy in many cases is so many have to leave in the first place when they do not want to do but are compelled to do so to save for a future that they cannot do in Ireland. This 1300 difference is also quite small between those emigrating and returning and our including data going back to the Census before last.

Quite frankly if it were not for the war in Ukraine we would have a falling population with politicians simultaneously boasting of how successful we are.

Supposedly companies here are crying out for workers, so why are these people emigrating?

@Sunny Disposition

The cost of living is ridiculous however, and people need to get off of this simplistic idea that the economy is everything. A country is not just an economy and we're not all just consumers. There's much more to a fully functioning society than that.

Plus, the prices of things need to be far more regulated than they are currently. In the past year the cost of items, ranging from the price of the pint to furniture, to whatever you're having yourself have rocketed and it was all blamed on the price of petrol going up. But petrol has come down in recent months to the lowest it's been since September last year. Yet, the prices of most goods have remained at their high level.

And this is a problem that's never tackled on a political level. When prices of most things go up, they stay up and that's why there's a lot of discontent in the country. Couple that with the extreme difficulty that our younger generations have in even hoping to put a home in their future, and it's hardly surprising that there's a lack of content.

We're blowing our future, and our political classes couldn't give a fuck.

I wonder how much of it is waffle?

I interviewed for a job recently and they mentioned they were interviewing 20 other people - that was for just one position.

Friend in internal recruitment for another company told me they received approx 100 qualified applicants for each position last year.

There are definitely niche shortages in parts of the economy, but in my admittedly limited personal experience its not spread out.

The Blueshirts arent out for the count yet, according to Paschal.

The Government will be re-elected with a bigger majority at the next general election, Paschal Donohoe has predicted.

I have never been to Australia but contacts there tell me that it's financially viable to move there only if you plan to stay for a very long period or permanently. One major issue is the currency exchange rate. I understand 100K Aus dollars is worth something like 63K Euros Some lads manage to accumulate some savings by working long hours in the mines, some for 14 days on the trot then 3 or 4 days off. Working 9 to 5 in say an office for a year or two is just a life experience without any real savings when travel expenses, accommodation etc. is taken into account. But Australia is a huge country with lots to offer and there's more to life that the balance in the bank account 😉

I know dozens of lads who headed off for Australia, all had a ball, all bar one came home within 3 years (he's married with 4 kids), it's a fantastic place to go and if you're willing to work every hour God sends you can come home with a decent nest egg. If you want somewhere to swim surf and screw for a year after college then you ain't gonna find better.

But the lad who stayed is mostly happy, but complains about wasted taxes, the cost of living, the price of a pint and the commute because he couldn't afford to buy in Melbourne. Sound familiar?

He has a pool and a horse, I can see my family without it costing thousands of Euros, we'd both prefer the other.

The article about students is from 2019; I wonder if that study were done today how would Ireland's students do, given 2 years of non-schooling due to Covid. It also mentions Ireland's down the list for high achievers, which are the ones that will bring up University rankings.

Alabama is a notoriously backwards state in terms of pretty much everything in the US. Life expectancy, educational levels, pollution. Kind of a 'butt of jokes' place in the US. It shouldn't be used as a basis of comparison for much of anything. As for third-level funding, perhaps readjustment would be simpler than more money. How many PhD's in literature do we need Unis to offer? How many in Irish Language? There should be a very high bar for entry into one of those programs, including an honest assessment of job prospects for the student with such a degree. Some countries do better at 3rd levels than Ireland, for example in this opinion piece the writer mentions Sweden spending twice as much with about the same level of success for Universities: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-20421823.html

Some of your comments are reasonable, but I will focus on education spending.

I do not accept that we underspend on education.

You may point to many old school buildings, and I agree, as the emphasis of spending is elsewhere:

(1) we have way too many schools, 3,000+ at primary level, but nobody will change this. As a result, there are 3,000+ principal salaries, elec bills, duplication, higher costs, etc.

The parish of Riverstown in Co. Sligo has four national schools!! A tiny rural village

(2) a typical teacher's pension is 700 per week - is that underfunding?

A fair point. Yes, there are way too many small schools in rural areas, a hangover from pre-car times.

@BlueSkyDreams

Nobody knows the answer to this and nobody knows what the Shinners can even do to alleviate the problem. But what we DO know is that they are the only ones saying that they'll have a go at tackling the issue and what we also know is that FF and FG won't lift a damn finger to help with this. That's why there's a lot of people, including dyed in the wool FG'ers turning to them. I know several people from FG voting families that are going to give their X to SF in the next election because they're sick of FG sitting on their hands.

I don't know what a typical teacher's pension is per week. I'll tell you this though. It's THEIR money. They have 10%+ of their wage deducted for 30-40 years and my understanding is that actuarial statistics show that most teachers live for only 5 years following retirement. Furthermore they are getting taxed (AGAIN) on receipt of their pension and post 2011 cohort are getting royally screwed by FF/FG as it is estimated they'd have to live to be in their mid 90s to gain from any pension.

There is no real duplication. Principals in small primary schools are teaching principals. They are basically teachers doing extra admin.