Mayo district hit by high recent emigration rates - TD

The community of Erris in north Mayo have been hit by a fresh wave of high emigration.

According to Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, a total of 17 young people emigrated to Australia in recent weeks.

It is having a significant impact on local sports clubs and other community organisations.

And, according to Deputy Conway-Walsh, the situation is caused by regional imbalance and rural decline.

She elaborated: "I have two sets of statistics that prove the government is not getting things right in rural Ireland.

"The first is the data recently released by the EU as part of the EU regional competitiveness index which shows the severity of the infrastructure deficit in the west and north west.

"Of the 234 designated regions across the whole EU, the north-west region of Ireland ranks 218th for infrastructure.

"That places the region in the bottom 7%, alongside some of the poorest regions in the EU. Those are credible statistics that have been analysed.

"According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and we often go by CSO figures, the income gap between the northern and western regions and the State average has progressively widened in the past decade with a difference in disposable income per person increasing from slightly more than €1,400 in 2011 to almost €4,000 in 2021. That is extremely worrying.

"Ministers say we have nothing to complain about. I want us to look at this together, as people who care about rural Ireland.

"I know Minister Heather Humphreys does. She spoke about her area and I am glad that it can field football teams and so forth.

"However, we counted 17 young people who emigrated to Australia from the villages around me in recent times. It is happening. We cannot ignore this."