Young economist demands action on local jobs

A teenage economist from the Taoiseach’s own ‘backyard’ has called out the Government’s performance on job creation at the SAS Young Economist of the Year awards at the Kilkenomics festival.

The joint winner, Joseph Morrin, from Ballina, Co Mayo, who attends St Muredach’s College, presented research that found that a shocking 82% of teenagers in Ballina intend to emigrate.

Budding economist Joseph conducted interviews with 300 teenagers in the locality — 150 male and 150 female — to assess the economic impact of the recession on youngsters.

He said his research was prompted by the closure of the local cinema.

As a sign that there are some green-shoots the cinema has since reopened, but in its absence Jospeh’s survey made some shocking discoveries. “A lot of people in school had somebody in their family over the age of 16 affected by unemployment,” he said. “Nearly all of the males had someone over the age of 16 impacted.”

He called on the IDA to bring jobs to Ballina.

A spokesperson for the IDA said that the were only one of a number of agencies operating in the western region.

Jospeh shared the prize with Castleknock’s Danny Ferrara, whose video on the economics of football analysed all aspects of the game, from transfers to the value that hype can add to a player.