Sir, – Chatting to my young barber recently brought home to me the depth of the challenges facing people in Ireland today. Our conversation turned to the exorbitant rent he is paying for a small flat. As for his girlfriend, he told me that the “Missus” lived with her parents, but stayed at weekends.
Stories like this could probably be multiplied thousands of times across the country.
Ireland’s dash for unbridled growth is making it impossible for my young barber, and many like him, to break out of the accommodation trap of high rents and high and rising property prices. There does not even seem to be a voice in the wilderness asking, “Would less frenetic growth and more balance be be better?”
One could be forgiven for thinking that the economy would grind to a halt if we don’t have a data centre in every parish, and that north Dublin needs to become an airport first and a place to live in a distant second. The most vociferous voices are those with clear vested interests in growth, whatever the social and environmental costs.
Indeed, there are few voices for more balance within our Government, which seems to be poised to deliver the giveaway budget of all time.
In the latter years of the Celtic Tiger era, any criticism of Ireland’s growth model and booming property market was met with derision. Bertie Ahern, the then-taoiseach, famously said the “boom is getting boomer”. Charlie McCreevy, the then-minister for finance, is remembered for saying ‚”When I have it, I spend it”, as State coffers bulged with takings from the booming property market. Soon after, the global financial crisis hit, followed by an implosion of the Irish economy and banking system.
The economy is booming, the exchequer is awash with cash. A budget and a general election loom. History may not repeat but it rhymes. Groundhog Day? – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’LOUGHLIN,
Dublin 14.