Sir, – In “After years living in Ireland, everything in Australia feels suspiciously easy” (Magazine, August 17th; People, August 16th), Brianna Parkins writes about how tough Ireland is for young people. This is not a new phenomenon. In the 1980s, young people, generally on one salary, were paying double-digit interest on mortgages and often living at home until they got married. Wages were very low and the economy bleak.
When graduating from college in 2002 during the Celtic Tiger, wages were far lower than starting wages now, and a starting wage with a university degree and even a master’s of €15,000 to €18,000 was not unusual. Rents were arguably lower but houses to buy were also in short supply; purchasing in summer 2005 saw prices rising by about €10,000 per week, not to mind a deposit’s worth of stamp duty paid on that purchase. It wasn’t easy then either.
This followed on with a deep recession, lasting more than half a decade, impacting both private and public sector workers. Many graduates at this time were unable to find jobs, let alone consider renting or buying. While house prices fell, mortgages were difficult to acquire, not to mind a job to secure it. Many purchasers who had purchased prior to the recession got hit with the tracker mortgage scandal. Those who bought Celtic Tiger apartments have in many cases only seen them approach their purchase price in recent years while house prices have rocketed ahead. Many have also been hit for additional levies to compensate for poor building works and while there is to be a redress scheme, it is very slow in coming, with little detail, and safety works must be carried out in the meantime, without knowing will those funds ever come.
That is not easy.
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It is undeniable that rents are too high but starting wages have grown hugely and there are many young people working in tech or for multinationals that are on very high wages.
That is not to say that we shouldn’t do things for young people. We need them to stay and work in the economy. But it is to say that it’s never really been easy for anyone in Ireland; every generation has had difficulties, despite what those coming after might think. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH BYRNE,
Dublin 3.
A chara, – We do “understand what the fuss is about” with regard to housing, employment, and inflation, and we shudder in recognition of our youth.
A common experience for Gen Xers renting in Dublin in the late 1990s was queuing with dozens of other applicants, also holding an Evening Herald, to view pokey bedsits that wept tears of dinge into threadbare carpets, and “share with the landlord” kips with thin partition walls, ancient electrical fixtures, and frigid bathrooms.
Irish Gen Xers grew up in an Ireland where frugality and emigration were the norm – the 1970s and 1980s in Ireland were one big recession. We held a “Live Aid”-style concert to support unemployed people because having a job – even a poorly paid job – was an impossible dream for many.
Gen Xers, in their 20s and 30s during the Celtic Tiger years, dared to dream – a job, a house, a few holidays. Don’t begrudge us what we were told were notions.
Our silence toward young working people struggling in the current economy can be best interpreted as “There but for the grace of God ...” – Is mise,
ÉILIS NÍ FHARRACHAIR,
Crois Araild,
Baile Átha Cliath 6W.