Ireland faces massive bank 'brain drain' as wages fall
Sunday May 03 2009
THE embattled Irish banks are set for a brain drain over the next few years, top recruitment experts have warned.
"There are challenges for the banking sector arising from the caps on banker remuneration," said Simon Waddington, partner with Merc Partners.
"There's a danger these caps will lead to a brain drain of bank executives. The cap also makes it very difficult to attract talent from outside Ireland."
Since executive pay at banks became a hot potato, bankers have been forced to give up the massive packages enjoyed during the boom years.
Last March, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan recommended a cap of €500,000 on bankers' pay.
The banking brain drain will spread across to other sectors because of the recent spike in unemployment.
Last week, the Economic and Social Research Institute warned that unemployment could hit 17 per cent in 2010 and that 60,000 people could emigrate over the next two years.
Anne Heraty, chief executive of the recruitment agency CPL, said Ireland faces losing its "highly skilled graduates".
"They will not stay here if there are not good opportunities and a good quality of life," said Ms Heraty.
"In our healthcare business in particular, we are seeing an increase in inquiries about opportunities in Britain and Australia. The challenge with unemployment is that it takes a long time to fix. It took Ireland almost ten years through the Nineties to counteract the unemployment of the late Eighties."
Ireland will lose a lot of its best civil engineers, quantity surveyors, architects and lawyers to emigration, according to Mark O'Donnell, director with Deloitte. "Certainly in the short-term, anyone who has studied architecture and law will have no choice but to emigrate," said Mr O'Donnell.
"This will include experienced and non-experienced people as these sectors have been hit drastically."
Michael O'Leary of recruitment agency HRM said Ireland would lose graduates right across the board. "New graduates will find it harder to get work here," he said. "That includes legal, science, business and technical graduates."
- LOUISE McBRIDE
