Irish people optimistic about their future, study finds

Irish people feel optimistic about their future with 44 per cent believing their lives will be better in 2025 and 48 per cent expecting to be in a better financial position than they are today, according to a new study published on Monday.

The Future of Ireland study, published by media agency OMD with the support of Ulster Bank and conducted by Amárach Research, surveyed 1000 adults during July and August this year.

It found that 43 per cent of those surveyed expected their family relationships to have improved and 42 per cent expected to be happier by 2025.

Key factors identified by those surveyed as contributing to this future happiness were universal healthcare (52 per cent), work-life balance (50 per cent) and freedom of choice (49 per cent).

The traditional family model is being redefined with 60 per cent of those surveyed believing that marriage will become less important. Over half count friends in their definition of family, along with relatives, rising to 71 per cent of under 25s.

Over half of those surveyed said they intended to learn a new skill to improve their earning potential and over a quarter said they intended to start their own business. More than one in five said they wanted to sell-up and opt for a simpler life.

56 per cent believed Ireland will have its first female Taoiseach by 2025 while 75 per cent said they expected the influence of the Catholic Church to have declined.

40 per cent said they thought the influence of Irish media, specifically that of RTÉ and daily newspapers would decline and more than half believed foreign companies would have more influence on their daily lives with countries like Germany and China becoming more important.

While 56 per cent expected Dublin to become less important both commercially and politically by 2025, 62 per cent believed Irish towns would struggle to recover in the next ten years from the combined impact of the recession and an ongoing increase in online shopping.

More than half of those surveyed expect immigrants to have a greater influence in the future with 38 percent saying they expect more Irish citizens speaking Polish by 2025 than speaking the Irish language. Most expected Irish people who emigrated in the past few years to stay overseas with only 21 per cent believing emigrants will be back home by 2025.

The majority of those surveyed said they intend to take greater responsibility for managing their health in the future rather than relying on the public health service with more than half saying they would be prepared to wear a device to monitor their health if it led to reduced insurance premiums.

78 per cent thought it was important to discuss the care of ageing parents with them and while 45 per cent would be happy to see elderly people cared for by adult children at home, only 21 per cent thought this was likely to happen in 2025.