Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The cost-of-living crisis has been hard on the country and based on what we know it looks like it will be with us for years to come. I feel this personally because me and my peers came of age during the last recession. A lot of us left and some of us came back and now it feels like it has all gone to pot again. That is a sentiment I toss around but I am feeling that from my colleagues, friends, peers and younger people I have spoken to and, therefore, I can only imagine how difficult it is for young people today - and I went through this myself - trying to look forward and imagine an Ireland we can live in.

I have been thinking a lot recently about a term that has become an all too common piece of daily parlance in Ireland, "notice to quit". Notices to quit are being served and issued to a lot of people around the country, many of them young, and they have been served at a particularly escalated rate in this recent stage of the housing crisis. Young people have been served a different kind of notice to quit. In the face of a spiralling cost of living it is a notice to quit aspiration and to quit hoping for the possibility of housing, a living wage, further education opportunities, and the Government to put their needs first. For many that is a notice to quit this island with higher rates of our young people considering taking leave and emigrating.

I am not able to put it into words because it is something I feel so deeply. When the motion was tabled, I put it online for people to respond and they kept coming back to me with a feeling of hopelessness. People were telling me they did not know what to say to me and they did not know how to express to me how they were feeling because they did not even feel like they could not achieve something or get somewhere; rather they just felt nothingness. It is terrible that I have people reaching out to me with those sentiments. The idea of saying you cannot even imagine owning a house feels contrite because that is almost an overplayed term. These people are saying they feel they cannot hope for anything and it is terrible that we have that.

There were a lot of good measures in yesterday's budget and there was a throwback to the old days of good budgets but it feels like we are in the middle of another throwback, namely the emigration of young people. It is a bit like what we saw in the early 2010s and the 1980s. We are watching this slow trickle, post Covid especially, of our young, talented, hopeful and ambitious generation leaving Ireland. There was a time not that long ago when people were leaving Ireland because they were looking for new job and growth opportunities but people I know who are leaving are doing so because they are looking for the basics. They are looking for secure work, living wages, affordable homes, security of tenure and healthcare. These are standard in many EU nations and we cannot deliver them here. This trickle of people leaving is growing and, as has been alluded to, unless we take radical and swift action, that will continue to grow until waves of people leave. I do not know how we can just sit by as public representatives and let this happen.

In my life I am surrounded by people my age who have gone, some of whom have come back and some of whom are leaving again. I am of an age where people are on the move out of Ireland for a second time and some are contemplating leaving right now. My best and oldest friend is in my house; she was served notice over the summer and she said she had nowhere to go and had no other choice. She is in my house and has been living with us for a couple of months and she is moving to Brussels. I am so excited for her and for the opportunity she is going to have, for the life she will live and for the affordable rent she will have. Rent in Brussels is 45% lower than in Ireland and she will have access to healthcare and a lower cost of living. She will have a brilliant and wonderful life but she should not have to be leaving; she is leaving out of necessity. My best friend is leaving in the morning because there is nothing here for her and that is not good enough. It is not good enough that she is working and contributing; not that it is a requirement to do so. She loves being here and she has to leave because the Government and Ireland are not even giving her a glimmer of hope that she can stay here. She can stay in my house as long as she wants and she can live with us for the rest of our lives. We have lived together for years so that is not a problem but that is not what she wants. She wants to be able to have her own life, future and opportunities here and this Government and country cannot give her even a semblance of hope that this is an opportunity for her and that is not good enough.

This is not just about teens and young people. Our President, Michael D. Higgins, once said in the Dáil that in a republic there is no floor below which we do not let people fall and I do not know that we have any concept of where that floor needs to be. We have lost an understanding of it where it is so normalised that people just have to move back home and they are couch-surfing and going to food banks. I have a story on my phone from a woman who is saying:

Me and my partner have two full-time jobs and rely on a food waste charity to bulk up our meals. We do not think we are going to be able to keep our mould-infested rental warm throughout winter and the thoughts of electricity bills have me on the verge of a panic attack. If I get my usual cluster headache cycle this winter I will not be able to afford the medication. I already cannot afford the suma injections that would be most effective. Up to now I have been able to buy one or two boxes and I only use them for the most beyond all reasonably excruciating attacks. Now I will just have to suffer every single attack because one box is over 30 quid and with the cost of everything else I am simply going to have to choose to keep the lights on over my health.

These are the stories and I have so many of them. We all want to have more time but I have so many of these stories but the Leas-Chathaoirleach might will allow me to finish on one last short message I got from someone. My heart just broke when she sent me this message. She said:

Annie I have no hope. I just want to live a regular life here in Ireland and right now I feel like a ghost, barely living and like no one will listen. Annie I feel so alone.

It is not even the cost of living that young people are talking about now. They are talking about just feeling alone here in Ireland. If the Government does not get to grips with that message we will not have anyone of this generation left and it is a disgrace if that is what happens.