Sir, – Una Mullally writes about "a new era of emigration" but provides no evidence to prove it ("An emboldened people with rising standards threatens conservatives", Opinion & Analysis, January 3rd).
She quotes selectively about emigration from the political parties which she opposes. Voluntary emigration from an island nation is healthy and to be expected as people seek experience in other parts of the world, experience which those who return can put to good use.
Una Mullally also criticises the recent trend of internal migration out of Dublin, driven by the cost of housing and facilitated by remote working. It has been widely acknowledged for many years that excessive concentration of population in Dublin has deprived rural areas of people, economic activity, and employment while creating urban sprawl in the capital.
Rural Ireland is crying out for more people and more employment but Una Mullally sees migration to rural areas as a bad thing.
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In her broadside against Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael, she forgets to mention that the FG-led governments of 2011 to 2020 brought the country from bankruptcy and double-digit unemployment to a strong fiscal position and near full employment. Fine Gael led by Mr Varadkar also put in place the supports during the pandemic which have protected incomes, jobs and businesses and thereby prevented a return to involuntary emigration.
Those who await the social and economic nirvana promised by a millennial-supported Sinn Féin would do well to remember that wealth and income have to be earned before they can be redistributed and the incentive to do so will not be enhanced by an increase in the already punitive rates of income tax and USC which will be required to fund the Sinn Féin programme.
Your columnist refers to an absence of “quality of life, decent amenities, and plentiful cultural activities” in Dublin but no evidence is presented to support this allegation with which many people living happily in Dublin would disagree. She also refers to “a growing number of young people . . . leaving for London, Glasgow and Berlin primarily down to rent affordability”. Has Una Mullally checked rental affordability in London or Berlin? The former has always been a very expensive place to live and the housing crisis in Berlin is widely reported.
Una Mullally needs to leave her socio-economic cloud-cuckoo-land and come into the real world. – Yours, etc,
JOE LENIHAN,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Una Mullally makes many interesting points in her most recent article. The housing issue seems to be a central plank of the article and, undoubtedly, failure in this area is an indictment of this and past administrations.
However, her tendency to use broad brushstrokes does nothing to enhance her arguments: “What is the point of toiling away in Ireland when there are only kips of places to rent, the quality of life is poor and city life is boring”.
She cites, as a “trend of emigration”, growing numbers of people leaving Dublin for other parts of Ireland.
This normal movement within one’s own state has always occurred, and while it is now often precipitated by a lack of housing and changes to working lives, it does not, necessarily, negatively impact one’s life. It has nothing to do with emigration.
Similarly, she writes, with one sweep, that “the capital fails to provide people with a quality of life, decent amenities and plentiful cultural activities”.
How is Una Mullally arriving at these conclusions?
She cannot ignore the United Nations Human Development Index, in a report of 2020, which placed Ireland second-highest of 189 countries in the world for quality of life, based on health, education and income in each country.
Of course, these rankings don’t always show the full picture but to be rated “very high” in the top tier of human development is no small achievement.
It would be only fair for your columnist to occasionally acknowledge the many benefits of living in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
KATE GLEESON,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.