Sir, – Calling our recent history a “lost decade”, as Rory Hearne does, is absurd (“Where is the outrage over use of budget surplus?”, Opinion & Analysis, July 31st). In 2020, the UN ranked Ireland second in the world for quality of life. It was ranked 18th in 2010. Our life expectancy is among the longest in the EU, and we have essentially full employment.
A major part of Prof Hearne’s argument is based on homelessness. There are about 12,000 people here currently in that most difficult of situations. Our population, however, is increasing by about 65,000 per year. While a rate of zero would be desirable for homelessness, it is difficult to envisage and our level thereof is not very remarkable by international standards. The number who are homeless is roughly equivalent to the population increase we see every 10 to 12 weeks. And as long as Ireland remains among the best places to live on the planet, people will keep coming here. It might be fairer to characterise the ongoing challenges for government as being the unintended consequences of extraordinary success, or the “downside of the upside”. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
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Co Cork.