Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 1 October 2025
Committee on European Union Affairs
Eurofound: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Ivailo Kalfin:
No, it is much higher than in other areas. If you do not meet customers, the stress is much lower. You could go by gender and by sector and then you would find that there are pockets but the biggest problem for workers is housing. Ireland is far from being the worst case in Europe. I know that housing is a big issue here but if you go to Spain or other countries, they live for more than 40 years with their parents because they cannot afford housing, which means they do not have a family or good job. They are not making their career and life plans in the country and they are looking to emigrate all the time. The accessibility of jobs is also a factor. Marginal groups of people are very far from that. Ireland has an increased employment rate, so there are many more people at work and I imagine many more workplaces have opened. At the same time, the poverty levels stay the same, which means there are many people working but they have difficulties making ends meet. That is one of the questions we ask. We ask about the ability to pay bills and whether people expect to have problems with that in the next three months. Again, we see regional differences and country differences, mostly for young people living in rural areas, in particular in sectors like the agri-sector or the construction sector where there are more uncertainties. When you have uncertainties, these people are affected. They are not productive at work and they start to think about different things. This is also how political changes happen in these groups.
No comments