1 - 10 March 2011 Issue 5 - Volume 12 CEMETERY SERVICES & MAINTENANCE
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CROAGH PATRICK CHALLENGE 2011
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Emigration figures may be overblown? By John McTigue
I
N recent weeks and months the figures and predictions for emigration from Ireland have been stark, and the tragic implications have been used for strategic effect by political parties, lobbyists and other media. However, Northwest Express, in the course of drilling down through the statistics, has discovered that reality may differ considerably from perception.
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Paul Kiely Navigated Tim McNulty to his first Victory at the Galway International Rally which was on recently This is the Sligo mans fourth win at the event in the co drivers seat. Photo: James Burke
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PARENTS have been warned that reptiles are not appropriate pets for children under five. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) made the warning after an infant contracted botulism following exposure to a turtle or turtle feed combined. The HPSC also pointed out that a significant proportion of cases of salmonella are associated with contact with reptiles. Dr Paul McKeown, specialist in public health medicine at the HPSC said recently, there has been one case of botulism, in a small baby, associated with pet turtles. "On top of that, in 2008, a year when we had 449 cases of salmonellosis, fifteen of these cases had recent contact with reptiles. Continued on Page 2
The issue of emigration is one that strikes an emotional chord with every Irish person. We have a storied history of emigration at times of crisis from the Flight of the Earls to ‘Black ‘47’, to the eighties and up to today. While it is wildly accepted that mass emigration has returned to Ireland and the communities of the northwest, a study of the figures by this newspaper tells a different story. Recently, the ESRI projected that 100,000 people will have left the country in the two years up to April 2012. This is on top of the CSO figure of 34,500 people who left the country in the year up to April 2010; so 134,500 people will have left this country between April 2009 and April 2012. How realistic could this be? Firstly, it is important to point out the figure of 100,000 people leaving the country isn’t the number of emigrants, but the level of ‘net outward migration’, or in other words the number of people leaving the country, minus the number entering the country; yes people are still immigrating. So the number you hear in the news headlines isn’t the number of emigrants, it is the difference between the number of emigrants and immigrants or ‘net outward migration.’ Continued on Page 2
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