Eimear Cunningham

On WhatsApp we're on 087 484 888 or you can send me an email LiveLine at rte.ie and Eimear Cunningham is on the line.

Eimear, how difficult is it to get by in Ireland?

Hi, Ciarán, lovely to be on with you and hello to all of your listeners as well.

Look, you raise a brilliant question and all of us are struggling at the moment, but from my perspective, I'm having a crisis at the moment.

I'm about to turn 30 next week, right?

And it's got me thinking about the young people of Ireland and how failed we've been by our country.

The government have replaced the goddess Eirí for whom people have fought and died with the more selfish god, the Uireann.

And if we think of, say, my generation who are about to turn 30, we lived in the shadow of the recession for the entirety of our childhood.

We've seen child sizes go up.

We've seen, you know, resources being cut in schools.

We get into college and college fees are high and the housing crisis is about to begin.

And for the whole of our working lives, you know, we haven't actually been able to make ends meet.

Like, I know many of your listeners are struggling as well, but many of your older listeners did have a period of austerity, a time where they could earn and they could save and they could spend.

And I just feel for the young people of Ireland, we have been so unbelievably lost.

Like, speaking for myself and my friends, by the time you've rent paid, by the time you've your groceries paid, the tax on your car paid, you're lucky if there's €200 left over at the end of the month

That is not what life is supposed to be.

These are the years that we're supposed to be saving and earning and getting ready for kids because we've no mortgages, we've no kids yet.

And do you know what?

It speaks for itself, Ciarán.

It's not just the cost of living crisis.