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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
LiveLine with Ciarán Cuddihy on RTE Radio 1.
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.
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Chapter 2: How is the cost of living crisis affecting young people in Ireland?
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. It's turning into a population crisis. The population pyramid is totally inverted. because our government has failed us for so long. Since the second that the bus hit, we have been failed time and time again. And young people can't afford to have kids. And they're the ones that will be suffering.
You know, like, it's incredibly difficult. The birth rate was declining before the crash now. Yeah, that's fair. But you know what? The government actually almost admitted it themselves when they brought in the free IDX scheme. Behind that, there's a paranoia about the likes of myself and my friends who can't afford to have kids yet and won't be able for another seven or eight years.
And it may be too late for us then. And that is why the free IVF scheme was brought in. So it's not just the cost of living crisis is incredibly difficult for us. When you zoom out and look at what we've been hit with over and over and over again our whole lifetime, no let up. No let up at all. Not one year or two years of being able to properly save.
And, you know, it's just it's I I really felt for the hauliers and the farmers who were protesting last, you know, last week. But the young people of Ireland are part of that, too. We have been totally failed by the government. You know, where I mean, where does that leave your future? Like for myself, it feels, you know, sometimes it feels a bit bleak, to be honest.
Like the talks, every time we go to the pub to have a few pints, you know, it always kind of comes back to how hard things are for people. For myself and my partner, our future does look hopeful. Like I work two jobs to try and keep up with the cost of living crisis. receiving as best we can any penny that I have at the end of the month. So, Eimear, how does that work, the two jobs?
So, I work Monday to Friday. I have a 9-5 job and then I also have a kind of small grind school that I set up back home in Gors. I do low-cost grind, so I never charge more than €30 per student so that more people can afford them. So, to be honest, by the time all the students were corrected and I have about 15 students all in all across different groups.
So that's up to about an extra day a week that I'm, you know, that I'm doing. So, you know, but it's the only way to make ends meet and, you know, to give up any bit of luxuries at all and just keep at it. And this isn't what we were raised with. You talked about it earlier with Adam and Jack and, you know, they, like, there's no let up and, like, you're looking at
the kind of boom periods that had its own faults, for sure. But it was easy to earn and it was easy to spend and it was easy to save. And that's never been the experience for young people in Ireland. What struck me listening to, you know, Adam in particular, or Alan, sorry, earlier in the week was... was just the sense that it's getting a bit harder every year.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do young families face in securing housing?
And there's a few more quid to spend. all the time and instead it's going the other way and it's just, I mean, you can kind of, you can put up with any degree of hardship if you think it's going to get better. But if you're putting up with hardship and the next thing that comes is worse and the thing that comes after that is worse, I'm not sure how you're meant to deal with it.
And the thing is as well, Ciarán, of like, you know, it's been statistically proven that we're the lost generation, that we're the first generation in a long time that has less opportunities than our parents. because things have gotten harder and harder and we've gone through so many, you know, different crises as kids and adults, as all of us have.
But usually there were two or three years of kind of austerity within that where people could, you know, enjoy the money they're making. But that just feels to be gone. There's a dark cloud over the young people in Ireland, I feel. And it's just so difficult for working families and for young people and
You know, I really do feel the government are working for the economy and not for the people, let alone the young people. What do you mean by that? Because I know I've, God knows, I've interviewed enough government politicians to know they'd say, you know, when people say they're working for the economy, that's... You need money for services.
You need money to pay for teachers and nurses and Gardaí. And we know an economy with no money was the austerity years and nobody wants that. So, you know, they are trying to improve livelihoods by improving the economy. Yes. However, what I'd say is, you know, if you look at the signs of a healthy economy, it's that you have a rainy day fund.
And, you know, you've less debt and, you know, you're attractive for investment, attractive for trade. And Ireland takes all of those boxes, but yet we feel like we're in a recession. And, you know, they've given this half a billion euro package, which is brilliant. That's fantastic that they've given it. But they're making us feel like we're asking for 50 euro to go for a disco to get it.
This is a rainy day fund and we are in a hurricane. And it is our money. It's our money. It belongs to us, the Irish people. So they're more interested in hitting the marks for a good economy globally, which I understand.
But yet, when they have the money to invest properly in the people, create more opportunities, maybe raise the cut-off rate for taxes, maybe get rid of USC, they don't seem to be willing to do those things and increase those measures. So that's why I say we're in, you know, late-stage capitalism. They are more interested in making the economy look attractive than actually listening to people.
And, you know, you can see it yourself with Fianna Fáil this week. They're turning against Nícheál Maarten. The young ministers can see it themselves too. So what then... would improve your lot? I mean, if they're not listening to people, they're servicing the economy. And again, you know, they'd defend themselves if they were here.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the inverted population pyramid in Ireland?
But then, you know, the other thing, as I mentioned, is, you know, they've talked since 2000, like, since 2011 it's been on and off about the USC was introduced and they were taking it out and it's still there. It should be taken. If the economy is healthy, we need to make it easier on our young people and on people in general.
Chapter 5: How are individuals coping with rising costs and dipping into savings?
But also, I think, as well... You know exactly now, Eimear, what to say to that. Well, fine, but scrap the USC, but there's a massive hole in Exchequer finances. And if you also want more speech and language therapists and you want more doctors and you want more nurses and you want us to improve...
infrastructure and you want better public transport, you want that public transport to be free, you're not going to do any of that. And, you know, tweaking tax bands that you were talking about already, again, the cost of that.
Yeah, but I also feel that's offset, though, with our corporate taxes, like as in when we're performing healthily, you know, we need to make, as I said, they talk about a rainy day fund. It's not a rainy day anymore. It's a hurricane.
And it's time, usually, look at Canada there today, they're after reducing some of the taxes temporarily as well so that people can get a bit of a break, so that the economy can stabilize for a while. If it was even for a period of one to two years, I really do feel it would just help people to put that extra bit of money away. To be fair to him, Simon Harris is after bringing that money.
that investment scheme, which is a really good step forward, but people don't have the money to invest it with. So what if we had a plan where for one to two years, we could reduce it slightly, increase the savings, and just give young people a bit of a break, you know? I'd also highly encourage them to read up. Adam McGuire has a brilliant book called Bailout Babies.
And Ray Dalio as well talks about the principles of economies and what you need to do. Are you a bailout baby? Oh, for sure. Yeah, well, I mean, I told you I'm about to turn 30. So if I had any money left over... That's a bit like when I claim I'm a millennial. Well, we're in verse there. You're clinging on to the bailout baby status, like I'm clinging on to being a millennial.
I'm on the... Well, look, I highly remember when the Celtic Tiger was in, a helicopter landed in my neighbour's back garden to go to the Galway races, and I think that makes me a bailout baby. Oh, wow. That's... I think that's the sign of it. Heady days. Heady days. Oh, God.
Anyway, listen, stay with us here because Tanya's after getting in touch as well and one of many people who are kind of willing to share their stories and it does feel like Alan and Jack and others this week on LiveLine have touched a nerve talking about that, you know, running to stand still and things just getting tighter and tighter and tighter.
Tanya, do you see a future for yourself in Ireland?
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Chapter 6: How does the lack of government support impact young people's futures?
Public transport is just not there either. So we can't stay in our community because it's too expensive. And if we move too far out of it, we're cancelling ourselves out of opportunities.
What or who would you miss most if you moved to Spain?
I would just miss Ireland. Life here. You know, to us. Life in Ireland has always provided freedom. Freedom growing up, like I mean, not current day, like freedom and peace and joy. And we love where we come from. We love our culture. We love the Irish people. We're born and raised here. And all we really wanted was to build our own house or to buy a house with a small house.
you know, a big enough garden for the two children. But that's just no longer a reality we're facing, I feel.
How does that make you feel?
Devastated. Heartbroken. Like, absolutely devastated facing the fact that what we want, which is not much that we're asking for, is to stay within our own community, to keep our children close to their friends, close to their connections with school and clubs. And we're facing the reality now that we have to rip everything away in order to provide stability.
It's not just even about a better life. It's about stability. And we can't gain stability here. And that has been something that's built up over the last three or four years. We're not stable here in the sense of housing and the cost of living. Trying to save... as well is incredibly hard when everything is so expensive.
Do you notice things getting tighter as well?
Absolutely.
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