Seven In Ten Young People Are Considering Leaving Ireland: Survey
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What does the Red C survey reveal about Irish youth wanting to leave the country?
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First guest, Grace McManus, uh Policy and Campaigns Manager at NYCI, the National Youth Council of Ireland. Uh tell us about the findings from your new Red Sea polling, particularly in relation to what eighteen to twenty four year olds are thinking.
Uh hi, good evening Matt, and thanks for having me on. Um yeah, so our our recent polling uh found that that age group, uh seven and ten of them, just under seven and ten of them, are looking overseas um as potential places to build a life rather than here. Um, and that was within a context in the poll where they also said that nine in ten of them had been uh negatively impacted by rising costs. They said that commuting costs had have been more difficult over the last year, and that was before the recent announcements of increase of public transport uh costs. They said they're facing financial pressures around accommodation, college fees, food and groceries. And and really concerning for us is that nine in ten young people are concerned about finding well paid work.
So all of these things are what we would consider essentials day to day um needs uh to build a life here and they're really feeling the struggle and they can't see a way to get away from that through work, and so they're looking overseas, and that's a big concern for us.
Are they convinced so that they'll find it any easier or any better overseas?
This is the thing, obviously there is no country that is that is perfect, but I think it's the interlocking nature of all the issues when it comes to accommodation. it comes to rising prices and uh uh that and it come and and youth uh unemployment that is the real difficulty for young people here.
Why are young people in Ireland struggling with rising living costs and job prospects?
And I think every one of your listeners will know somebody who has moved overseas and would love to come home in a heartbeat, but can't because they don't see a a a way to have a life here. And that's a real problem. So it's that path to independence for young people that we need to see the government uh introduce some actions on in in budget twenty twenty seven to address some of these issues.
What sort of things do you think would help?
Yeah, so uh we have a a pre budget submission. We look at the cost of of living pressures on young people. So we think every person who's working should have access to the minimum wage, and that means getting rid of sub minimum rates of pay for for young people. We believe the job seekers allowance, so if a young person needs to rely rely on that social welfare support, they should be getting the same rate a as the adult rate. We'd love to see free public transport introduced for under twenty-fives as a way to get money back back into their pocket for for other things, but also it assists in our climate goals and it makes sure that public transport cost is never a barrier to young people working or or socialising.
Um we think there needs to be a reduction in college fees. Um There's lots of information and stats out there about the financial pressure that students and their families are under. Um and we don't think that finance should be a barrier to accessing better, uh, a higher level of uh quality of education for yourself. And finally, I I think it's an under talked about area.
What policy changes does the National Youth Council propose to keep youth in Ireland?
Um nearly one in five adults in emergency accommodation now is between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four. And the causes of youth homelessness are are s they're in some ways similar to the rest of the population, but they have unique causes as well. So we want to see targeted Measures to prevent youth homelessness and address uh helping young people out of homelessness as soon as possible if they find themselves in that situation.
Okay, I want to bring in Sarah McGuinness, who used to work with us on this program, uh who has also worked for a couple of newspapers here in Dublin and who gave up well paid secure deployment. I hope you don't mind me saying that, Sarah, uh to head off and to go away.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What does the Red C survey reveal about Irish youth wanting to leave the country?
0:00–1:42
2
Why are young people in Ireland struggling with rising living costs and job prospects?
1:42–2:59
3
What policy changes does the National Youth Council propose to keep youth in Ireland?
2:59–4:21
4
How does youth homelessness factor into the emigration discussion?
4:21–5:45
5
What personal experience does Sarah McGuinness share about moving abroad?
5:45–7:12
6
Is finding work and affordable housing easier or harder overseas?
7:12–8:47
7
What conclusions do the hosts draw about solutions for Ireland’s youth crisis?
8:47–10:54
Speakers
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