Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to address youth emigration, but before I speak on that it is important to note what happened yesterday outside our Houses of Parliament with the far-right attacks on Deputy Paul Murphy. That should be condemned by everybody in the House. We all need to be very careful, particularly on social media and of the accounts that we tweet and retweet that endorse threats of violence against Members of this House. It is up to all of us to stand up for democracy and to make sure that the far right does not grow any further legs. They are here, they are growing and we all need to stamp that out. I just wanted to put that on the record and offer solidarity to Deputy Paul Murphy.

I want to talk about the RedC poll that was carried out by the National Youth Council of Ireland, NYCI, that highlighted a frightening and startling fact, which is that seven out of ten of our 18- to 24-year-olds are considering moving abroad for a better quality of life because they cannot afford to live in this country. As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic which in itself was so problematic for young people, we now find that the cost of living and the housing crisis have ensured that the spectre of emigration once again hangs over his State. There is little doubt that the Government has failed and is continuing to fail our people, particularly our young people. It always seems that they are the pressure valve and when things get bad, we just expect our young people to emigrate to relieve that pressure.

We have a broken health system, we have the worst housing crisis ever and we have a cost-of-living crisis that is now being magnified by soaring inflation and ridiculous rental costs alongside outrageously high energy bills that are on the horizon as winter approaches. Something has to give. It is not only that we are living with all these multiple crises, but we also need our young people to stay in this country because we need them to help us to get us out of this crisis. We need our young nurses and our young doctors to help fix our health system. We need the teachers to educate our children. We need the young skilled electricians, plumbers and plasterers to build all of the houses that are so urgently needed. Why are we educating and training our young people for another country’s benefit when they are so badly needed here? I call on the Government to introduce targeted action to address the cost of living but particularly to focus on those issues affecting young people, including youth homelessness. We are now seeing students who have done excellently in their leaving certificate examinations and who are being offered places in college and they may have to defer those because, again, the housing crisis is impacting on them. Unless young people are catered for in the upcoming budget, many will choose to emigrate. I call on the Government to please hear the calls from the National Youth Council of Ireland and to support our young people.

To finish, trans rights are human rights.