Higher rates of alcohol problems have been found among older Irish people who spent time as emigrants.

The findings are referenced in yesterday’s report from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing — which was launched by Trinity in 2006 to study a sample of 8,000 people aged 50 and over and resident in Ireland.

The project aims to chart their health, social and economic circumstances over a ten-year period.

Researchers found that almost a quarter of the men and just over a fifth of the women included in the study had lived abroad for at least six months.

Of that number, over 40 per cent were abroad over ten years.