Joseph Kelly Thinking out loud

Bleeding Talent

Over the past 4-5 months I've been recognising some demographic trends that make me a little bit nervous. Being based in London and travelling back to Cork frequently I have a good chance to identify changes in both environments.

The one which concerns me most is the amount of young talented Irish people making their way to work in London. I've been based here now for two and a half years and there has always been a steady flow of guys and gals coming over. But, the state we are at now is where people's entire groups of friends are now either based in London or travelling and upon returning, coming to London. The people that are already based here, also, once questioned see very little prospect of returning to work in Ireland in the coming years.

Now there will always be an attraction for the best grads and professionals to work in large global cities due to the industry positions available. However, what we are seeing now must be classified as mass emigration, and a repeat of the devastating 1980's economic situation.

I'm not a pessimist, and will always look for solutions to a problem. So what can be done to ensure that Ireland can not only maintain but also attract the creative class required to drive the country's economy forward. FDI from multinationals will neither be freely available or the required solution to this problem. Investment in national enterprises and supporting an ecosystem of national successful upstarts is where we need to be at. Now the government will profess that the smart economy is their focus, but they have no real prospect of achieving this.

1. The speed at which initiatives are implemented are frighteningly slow

2. It's difficult to run without maintaining the smart people in the country.

3. Zero confidence not only in the current government, but the entire political hierarchy and its oversight of the inflated public sector.

So if we can't rely on the government to drive initiatives to inspire and maintain Ireland's talented workforce, then it must fall on universities, existing industry and professionals. Free professional training, free office space, equipment sponsoring, mentoring, no strings seedfunding, inspirational talks, innovation events, drives to attract international talent, international experience trips.

This is not a banking position in London paying graduates £40,000, but it does at least provide exciting opportunities for a work hungry young population. I’ll be doing my part to drive some of these initiatives and I just hope some of the people with real power wake up and smell the bloody coffee.