Mr. Ciarán Nugent:

I want to come in on housing. It is often pointed out that our minimum wage, in a nominal way, is high for a European country and it is asked why an increase would be needed. The ETUC produced an analysis last year that showed that where the price of an average two-bedroom apartment is concerned, Ireland is jointly at the top of the table of the least affordable. Also, we have a high number of low-wage workers. It is getting worse every year.

We have also seen an increase in the number of adult children living at home. These individuals are often not in the low-paid bracket. They may be highly educated and are often in high-status, high-skill and high-paid occupations. There is obviously an issue of distribution for policymakers. It is such a generational issue. For the under-40s, we want the price of housing to fall. There are many households in the country that this would affect. How we deal with this is complex. I will not go into all the factors; suffice it to say that housing is becoming increasingly out of reach, especially for low-wage workers. One has to be in the top 10% of earners to afford a house of €650,000. There have been promises and there is a social contract. People go to college and come out and face what I describe. The Growing Up in Ireland survey states 30% of females have had mental health issues and anxiety by the age of 25. Sixty-eight percent of 25-year-olds are still living at home, and 70% of those are doing so because of financial issues. It is getting worse every year. We will probably still be having this conversation in ten years, but circumstances will be worse.

On the co-ops, there is so little. There is a legislative environment in other countries that we could examine. The number of individuals needed to set up a co-op has a preventive effect. In some other countries, four individuals are needed, whereas it is seven here, I believe. Some work was being done on that before Covid but I do not believe it ever made it-----