It was only in recent years that the population of Ireland had recovered to it's pre-emigration population level. Now it's almost certain that the country will see another wave leave for Australia, Canada and elsewhere. The Independent:
With the unemployment rate still above 13 per cent and remaining high, many with a bankable trade are now considering taking the drastic option of leaving Ireland in search of work.
The government expects as many as 100,000 people to leave over the next four years. In most cases, it is a decision taken with the utmost reluctance. Mr Lynch said he would be leaving his wife and six-month-old son behind initially while he secured a job.
A new wave of emigration would be one of the most painful symptoms of Ireland's financial crisis, which continued to be the subject of a fraught political stand-off yesterday. Brian Cowen, the under-siege Irish Prime Minister, again emphasised his government was not in need of a European bailout. However, finance minister, Brian Lenihan, conceded the country's banks needed help. A mission of EU and International Monetary Fund officials will visit Ireland today, in the latest attempt to resolve a debt crisis which some fear is putting the nation's European partners at risk. Mindful of the potential knock-on effects on the UK's economy, George Osborne declared that Britain also "stands ready" to play its part in any rescue plan, over the objections of some Tory MPs. But further evidence for the impact of Ireland's woes came as Portugal's borrowing costs sky-rocketed on the back of traders' worries over the "contagion effect" caused by the country's crisis.
