The document summarizes key findings from Ireland's 2006-2011 census and the aftermath of the country's economic downturn: - Housing construction increased 13.3% while population only grew 8.1%, indicating overbuilding of homes. Nearly 50,000 vacant units were reported by 2011. - Starting in 2006, population declined for the first time since 1991 as thousands emigrated annually. Over 250,000 empty or unfinished homes remain. - Politicians, bankers, and developers who profited during the boom now live abroad, while new taxes burden those remaining in Ireland. The exodus of youth and high taxes threaten to further weaken the struggling economy.

1. There is No Country For Old Men
Sept/Oct Western Australia’s Irish Scene Page 32
Preliminary figures from Ireland’s 2006-2011 census were posted online in April. The results
are astounding with regard to housing construction and population growth and decline.
According to the 2006-2011 Irish Census online, “Housing numbers (dwellings) have
increased more rapidly than total population between 2006 and 2011, with a 13.3 per cent
increase in dwellings compared with 8.1 per cent for the population.”
The census statistics show a remarkable phenomenon that brought the Celtic Tiger,
Ireland’s once booming economy, to its knees. Property developers ignored the age old
adage of “supply and demand,” and built houses without knowing if a demand existed.
The census states that, “The number of dwellings increased by 234,562 from 1,769,613 in
2006 to 2,004,175 in 2011, representing an annual average increase of 46,912.”
Almost 50,000 homes were built in Ireland over a five year period.The Census reported that
there were 294,202 vacant units that were habitable in Ireland. Add to this the fact that
inward migration to Ireland started to increase in 2002.
People began to return in small numbers starting in 1991. Between 2002 and 2006 net
inward migration to Ireland averaged 47, 800 per year. Then the turnaround came, early
signs of an end to the Celtic Tiger’s growth. Starting in 2006 the population declined and
continued to do so.
Between 2006 and 2011 almost twenty five thousand people left Ireland. It was the first
population decline since 1991. Previous migrations ‘en masse’ occurred in the seventies
and eighties and previously in the fifties and sixties. The record low according to the 2011
Census findings was a staggering 44,000 leaving the country in 1989.
Going back to the housing situation; a 13.3 per cent increase in dwellings compared with
8.1 per cent for the population, who were they building these houses for? Property
developers cashed in during the population boom and continued to cash in when the
decline in population was apparent. Politicians and bankers turned a blind eye because they
all benefited financially. Over 250,000 houses lie empty or unfinished in Ireland. Despite
some well meaning pressure groups wanting to house the homeless, other uses that are
regularly mentioned for the now-closed hotels, empty offices and ghost estates are nursing
homes, hospitals, schools, community centers and prisons according to an article in The
Irish Times. The common solution to half finished houseing estates is to tear them down
and return to farming the land.

2. In the aftermath of the 82 billion Euro IMF bailout agreement for Ireland, those same
politicians, property developers and bankers are now living abroad, in million dollar homes.
Sean Dunne now lives in Greenwich CT, after NAMA, the National Asset Management
Agency of Ireland acquired €350 million Euros of Mr Dunne’s loans from Irish banks.
Banker David Drumm lived a luxurious and quiet life in Chatham on Cape Cod,
Massachusetts until karma caught up with him.
An Taoiseach, Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern in 2008 resigned amid financial scandals
to be replaced by Brian Cowen. Each man was being paid more than the president of the
United States whilst in public office. According to an article by the Associated Press in 2007,
“Prime Minister Bertie Ahern gave himself a hefty pay increase Thursday, putting his salary
higher than both President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Ahern, Ireland’s
leader since 1997, will see his annual salary rise 14 percent to $444,000, more than Bush
($400,000), Brown ($387,000) and a host of other European leaders.”
The Taoiseach’s salary has led to ongoing discussions and presently much needed cuts.
Harry McGee of the Irish Times said it correctly in 2010,
“The Irish elite have big notions about themselves.”
For a small country where do they think all this money is coming from? The new taxes
imposed on the Irish left in Ireland will cripple the economy, the mass exodus of
Ireland’s young will leave an older generation to steer the tax heavy sinking ship.
All of these factors help to fulfill the first line of William Butler Yeats’ Sailing to Byzantium,
“That is no country for old men.”