22,000 primary pupils have left Ireland since 2012

Some 22,000 children who had been attending primary school have emigrated in the past five years.

New figures published by the Department of Education show the annual average is 4,300, or 6% of all births each year.

The number of schoolchildren aged 12 or under who have emigrated since the economic crash, which began in 2008, is 38,300. The overwhelming majority have left with their parents and other family members, which gives an indication of emigration levels in the past decade.

The peak figure of young children emigrating was 4,689 in the 2014/15 school year.

Since then, the numbers of schoolchildren emigrating have started to fall, to 3,628 last year, the lowest level since 2012.

Before 2004, fewer than 2,000 primary students emigrated each year, but the numbers had more than doubled by 2013.

In some cases, the figures relate to non-Irish nationals returning to their country of original or moving elsewhere abroad.

The figures are compiled from school registers, which record what happens to children after they leave their primary school.

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said the figures provided insight into the return of emigration for Irish people in the aftermath of the economic downturn.

“The increase in numbers of emigrating schoolchildren, since 2008, shows a hidden human cost of the financial crisis, as well as the poor management of the economy and the failure of austerity policies,” said Ms Murphy.

“While we are used, in Ireland, to viewing emigration as a safety valve to ease pressures in the labour market, it is not something to be at all proud about.”

Ms Murphy said that many of the families involved had had no choice but to move overseas.