Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Senator Hoey for a fantastic speech in which she hit the nail on the head. Her friends and colleagues are in the age group we are talking about today and that was powerful. On behalf of the Civil Engagement Group I also want to commend my colleague, Senator Clonan, on this timely motion. Hearing his story about his son was powerful and that is the reality of life today and that is what we are talking about. It is devastating.

The motion is welcome in that it addresses the cost-of-living crisis for people, both in the context and the language of human rights and intergenerational justice. That is what we are talking about today. On housing, while the crisis has been the subject of extensive political debate for the best part of ten years, I just want to take a little step back. There has been a housing crisis for decades and the core part of it is the financialisation of housing and the idea that housing is a commodity and not a human right. If someone has an apartment that he or she can afford, he or she is lucky. One of my children lives in Kildare and she can afford to live there while my son barely lives in Dublin. It is shocking. There has been much discussion about home ownership and the idea of young people starting families and the situation has evolved so much that we are going beyond generation rent to generation stuck at home. The ability of young people to live independently is not just a question of having housing but it is about having freedom that they may not have in a family home, including the freedom to explore, participate in new spaces and form adult relationships while learning new things about themselves and the world. This is denied to so many of them in Ireland.

Many people may have recently seen the poem by Alice Kiernan about the relationship many young people feel they have with our capital city. She said: "I love my home but my home doesn't love me back". The fact that so many of our young people relate to this feeling of being unwanted and excluded from Dublin is not a natural phenomenon. It is a symptom of the policies that have been enacted over previous decades that prioritise profit over people. This feeling of exclusion and dejection has real consequences. A survey carried out by Red C on behalf of the National Youth Council of Ireland showed that more than 70% of young people in Ireland aged between 18 and 24 are considering moving abroad for better quality of life.Most of my colleagues have spoken about that. To achieve a better quality of life in this country, there are concrete steps we can take. They are steps that are not reliant on the private market and which the State can take to guarantee the dignity and rights of all. First, while the reduction in the student contribution is welcome, it must be abolished and SUSI rates must be increased. Education is not a commodity. It is a social good and must be treated as such.

On housing, earlier this year the Seanad passed a motion proposed by my own group, the Civil Engagement Group, calling on the Government to introduce progressive long-term solutions such as committing to the definancialisation of housing as a core principle of future housing policy, ending the State's over-reliance on the private market, addressing the shortcomings in Irish housing, establishing a State-owned and State-operated construction company and investing radically in the development of public homes on public land. Instead, we see poor use of State money. For example, instead of spending over €102 million last year on leasing for social housing and planning to spend an additional €98 million this year, the State could be using that money to spend on building social housing to be owned by the State and occupied by the people.

This country is failing young people who are disabled, who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, who suffer from mental health difficulties, who are LGBTQ+, or who are lone parents. We know from the Indecon cost of disability report that households with disabled persons face additional annual costs of between €8,700 and €12,300 and that the bulk of these costs are unmet by current supports. Once-off measures such as the €500 lump sum payment for disability allowance recipients are welcome, but they simply do not scratch the surface of what is needed to tackle the true cost of disability. A key component of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is Article 19 on living independently, which intersects with issues of housing and participation in the community. When will Ireland take the long-overdue step of ratifying the optional protocol so that this right and all others can be vindicated and made enforceable?

On poverty, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who are single parents are more at risk of poverty. In devising proposals regarding social welfare payments, is the Government using the minimum essential standards of living developed by the Vincentian Partnership to inform the actual rates of payments people need to live, and not just to survive?

In this country, young people are left waiting for healthcare, housing, a living wage and a decent quality of life. In many cases, they are waiting for real life to begin. The State bears the ultimate responsibility and it must undertake transformative structural change and action including the measures outlined in this motion. Young people desperately need change and require their rights to be vindicated. If this does not happen, those who can leave will leave and those who cannot leave will be condemned to survival, not living. James Joyce famously said that Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow. It seems that this statement remains true today. I hope with all my heart that it will not be true in the future. I wholly commend the motion and say well done to Senator Clonan again.