Soaring costs of housing and childcare are taking over as the primary reasons for emigration for the first time in the history of the State, Sinn Fein’s housing spokesman has said.
The crisis is also seeing some older people in their 70s going back into house sharing because they were never able to buy a home.
Eoin O Broin said he is dealing with an extreme case of a couple in their 70s who were evicted.
The Dublin Midwest TD told the Irish Mirror that more and more people, with “good jobs and good education” are coming to him to say they are leaving the country because they can’t afford to buy a home.
He said it is also the second time some people are emigrating, having left after the last recession, returned home with the very reasonable dream of building a life and raising a family here, only to have to up sticks again because of the outrageous costs of housing.
Mr O Broin said: “I’m getting contacted by people all over the country and I’m hearing with increasing frequency people with good jobs, with good education, but because they can’t afford, in the first instance housing, in the second it’s childcare, they’re emigrating.
“I got this very emotional email from a guy from Donegal and he was emigrating.
“He was in the airport and he was leaving the country again. He’d left after the last recession.
“He was a young lad, just out of construction, had moved to Australia and when the economy here picked up he came back with his Australian partner and their young kids.
“He’s got a really good job here, he wants his kids to grow up in Ireland, but now he’s leaving again.
“He emailed to say people need to know that for the first time in the history of the State, it’s not unemployment or underemployment that’s driving emigration. It’s in the first instance, people can’t afford a home.”
Mr O Broin said he is also seeing droves of young couples moving back in with their parents - often with young children in tow - because they are desperate to save for a mortgage.
He added: “What we’re getting now in increasing numbers is men and women in their 60s, late 50s, 60s, going back into house sharing.
“I had one very extreme case of a family, both retired, both 70, they’d been renting a place very unusually for 45 years and the owner of the property has died.
“The son has taken it over and he wants the house back, so they’ve been issued with a notice to quit.
“As they have modest occupational pensions, they’re above the threshold for eligibility for any housing supports.
“But if they were to rent, at current market rates, they would have to spend 50% of their current take-home pay. These people have worked and paid rates and taxes and our housing system is throwing them to the mercy of an affordable and insecure private rental sector.”
Mr O Broin told the Irish Mirror about the jobs he did before entering politics.
He said: “I worked in kitchens with chefs a lot and when you’ve done that…. I worked in cafes here in Dublin in my late teens, I worked in restaurants in London during my five years there and I worked in cafes in Belfast during my time there.
“In my 20s and 30s I spent a lot of time in the Basque country and they’ve a wonderful culinary tradition.”
“I really enjoy it, but I don’t think I could ever work as a chef, it’s a very high-pressure job and the pay isn’t particularly good.”
Mr O Broin had a brush with fame in his late teens and 20s when he was in bands - including an early version of the Frames.
He said: “At the end of my teens I was playing with two groups, one was called the Foremen.
“And then the collection of buskers, some of whom became the Frames, they hadn’t become the Frames yet.
“In the space of about six months both groups got essentially business propositions to work professionally.
“With the Foremen we offered a contract to work professionally, meaning we’d get paid, and if we got a record deal at the end of it, so be it.
“And at the same time Glen Hansard had just signed a publishing deal with Island Records and he was looking for musicians.
“I really love music, but I had no ambitions to be a professional musician, so I said no to both, turned them both down.”
In the end film director, John Carney, took Mr O Broin’s place in the Frames.
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