Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 28 Sep 2022

Vol. 288 No. 7

Impact of Cost of Living Issues on Young People in Ireland: Motion

Senator Tom Clonan

I move:

“That Seanad Éireann:

acknowledges that:

- the housing crisis, the cost-of-living crisis, and the inability to provide adequate care to people with disabilities, medical and mental health issues has led to a situation in which young people are emigrating for better educational and living opportunities;

- students’ unions across Ireland have referred to the student accommodation crisis as an ‘emergency’ and there have been reports of students being homeless, living in tents, sharing rooms with several people or having to couch-surf because they are unable to pay rent;

- while the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis affects everyone, it has a more significant impact on young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and people who are impaired by medical issues, disabilities or mental health issues; caregivers and young parents are also amongst those seriously affected;

notes that:

- the national average for rent is over €1,250 a month, while in Dublin it is over €1,750 and that the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis is getting worse as the rate of inflation is currently over 9 per cent;

- Ireland is being criticised internationally for its housing situation; the French Embassy recently advised all their citizens who move to Ireland they will be subject to significant difficulties, and multi-national corporations have also expressed concerns regarding the Irish housing crisis; this threatens foreign direct investment and potential sources of tax revenue;

- approximately 50 per cent of much needed non-consultant doctors are leaving the country, while 90 per cent of medical students are considering leaving the country; similarly, nearly 20,000 nurses left Ireland between 2010 and 2022; apart from demonstrating issues with the cost of living and working conditions, this also has an impact on the supports that can be provided to people with medical issues, disabilities, or mental health issues;

calls on the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to:

- liaise with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to devise and implement a strategy to address issues related to accommodation for young people and their families; this should include making use of vacant properties and providing social housing to those in need;

- liaise with the Minister for Health to devise and implement a strategy to ensure that adequate supports are provided to young people who have disabilities or are impaired by physical or mental health issues; and

- liaise with the Minister for Education and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to devise and implement a strategy which will try to ensure that no student is unable to access certain educational opportunities due to their background or family’s circumstances."

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, for attending the House. The Independent Group decided to initiate a debate on the cost-of-living crisis and its impact on young persons. I will lead out the debate and my focus will be on the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on young persons and adults with disabilities. I can speak to that issue from my lived experience as a parent and carer of a young man of 20 years who is in second year at Dublin Business School, DBS, and how he is impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.

Europe is at war, as we are all painfully aware. This has provoked an energy crisis and brought with it the prospect of a tactical nuclear strike. Who knows? The cost-of-living crisis for persons with disabilities did not appear this winter as a consequence of the war in Ukraine and other complicating factors such as inflation. People with disabilities in Ireland live in a constant cost-of-living crisis. This has certainly impacted us and our son over the past ten years, in particular, after the financial crash and the imposition of austerity on the most vulnerable people in society.

Before I speak to the experience of people with disabilities, I will talk more generally about young people. I was surprised to be elected to the Seanad in March of this year. Prior to that, I had been lecturing for 22 years in Technological University Dublin and I had the privilege in that space to be dealing with young people every day. They were mainly postgraduate students and they numbered in the hundreds over that 22-year period. As far back as 2004, 2005 and 2006, it became clear that the postgraduate students sitting in front of me - most of whom were in their mid- to late- 20s and beginning to make important life decisions - did not have the modest ambition of owning their own home or having a secure and predictable place to live and within which to make all of their fundamental life decisions. This crisis did not begin in 2022 as a consequence of the influx of asylum seekers and refugees from Ukraine but has been 20 years in the making. This year, I would not even ask students if they had the modest ambition of owning their own home because to do so would be unfair. They are a completely locked-out generation who are being denied one of the most basic fundamental human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, namely, the right to shelter and to have a roof over one’s head. That is the more general overview.

I also have young people in my family. My eldest son, Eoghan, has siblings. He is 21 years old and a final year student of law and business in UCD. He and his peer group are preparing to emigrate because they cannot anticipate or look forward to that rite of passage that other citizens across Europe have of leaving the family home, moving into rental accommodation, buying a small place of their own and just having the experience of being an adult. They have been infantilised by being forced to live at home with their parents and are considering emigrating for that reason. There is plenty of work here but, unfortunately, a young graduate or professional working here is looking at living with his or her parents. There is no prospect of renting or affording a mortgage. I saw in a report published in the newspapers during the week that wage someone would need to buy an average priced house in the Dublin region is in excess of €100,000. Again, this is a situation that has been 20 years in the making.

In respect of people with disabilities and additional needs, I will speak about the financial costs involved. The Department of Social Protection published a report recently which showed that households with a member who has a disability have extra costs per annum of between €9,000 and €16,000. That is before you even open the front door, turn a radiator on or try to put petrol into the car. That finds expression in so many different ways. People have to modify their vehicle and to avail of that, they have to buy a new car that is big enough. For example, in our case we have to accommodate a power chair with a hydraulic ramp to lift it. Straightaway, people have to spend €66,000 on a vehicle, which has to be provided upfront in order to avail of the grants. These are major challenges for any family. My family is very privileged and lucky to be able to manage this but people with family members who have a disability are constantly managing burdens within the family.

In other areas, Eoghan, as an adult, is in receipt of €208 per week under the disability allowance. This was increased in the budget by €12 to €220 per week. That is great but even if we multiply it out, it still does not meet the extra financial burden placed on a household in a given year.

I will return to the human cost, not just the financial cost. Eoghan cannot leave the house to spend his disability allowance because he does not have a personal assistant. Ireland is one of the only countries in the EU that does not legally oblige the State to provide carers or care. We have no such legislation. We do not have a social care Act. We are an outlier in EU terms. Therefore, Eoghan cannot leave the house because he cannot leave the house on his own. He needs a personal assistant. It is not provided by the State. His €208 per week would probably buy him ten hours of assistance, and that would be reduced to six hours so that he would have a few euro to buy a cup of coffee or go into town and into McDonalds and have a hot chocolate. He is 20. He is stuck in the house. As was reported in the news recently, another young graduate spoke about how she is forced to live in her bedroom that has become the reign and compass of her world because Ireland is such a difficult place, notwithstanding the cost-of-living crisis, to have a disability in the first place.

The other thing Eoghan is denied is therapy. Again, unlike our other EU partners, we are the only country that is not legally obliged to provide medical therapies such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy to citizens. We are obliged to conduct an assessment of need. There are significant waiting lists but there is no legal obligation to then provide any of the therapies and services. For ten or 15 years, he has had none - zero. His deterioration is measured every year. These are the human costs of having a disability as a young person in Ireland.

We are told that he will get a once-off payment of €500 to offset the cost-of-living crisis. That would provide 22 hours of personal assistant care, if he could find a carer. Therefore, the cost to life of having a disability in Ireland, like the wider population of young people, and the aspiration to live independently and to have a home is even beyond imagination. For example, Eoghan is on the social housing list in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. I am told the waiting list for an accessible dwelling is approximately 22 years, so he will be 42 before he could consider leaving our house. Throughout the summer recess, and in the first couple of months that I was in the Seanad, when he was not in college with a PA, Eoghan was at home in his bedroom - a 20-year old man looking out the window at the world going by because the State will not provide him with the personal assistant hours to get out and about. Even before the cost-of-living crisis he was isolated and excluded. This is compounded by the current issues. Even if he did get a house, an accessible dwelling, in 22 years, as things currently stand, he would not have a home care package or assistance hours to enable him to live independently there. I made inquiries of the HSE about this and, after a lengthy discussion, a social worker in the HSE with responsibility for disability services asked if he had siblings or a sister. I said "Yes". I was told that she will look after him. That was in 2020, just before Covid, not 1920 or 1820, and that was from a social worker. That is how dysfunctional and out of touch we are. On every measure, Ireland is the worst country in the European Union to have a disability.

A young lady, Evelyne Cynk, who is a German citizen, hopes to study in UCC to do a masters in creative writing. She has 24-hour PA supports and as soon as she was 18 she was put into her own accessible dwelling with all of the wraparound supports that she needs to live a young, self-fulfilled, self-actualised life as a German citizen. She came to visit me in Leinster House with her PAs. They travelled with Ryanair. She spoke to me about her aspirations to come here. It broke my heart. She said she would even think of becoming an Irish citizen. I had to say to her that if she becomes an Irish citizen, she will no longer be an autonomous, independent, assertive young lady, but like my son, she will become a prisoner in her own home and eventually she will end up in a nursing home because there will be no supports for her.

There is a cost-of-living crisis in focus right now with all of the complications of Ukraine, but this is not something that is new to our community, and this is not something that has happened overnight as a consequence of a peak in energy prices or an influx of refugees. This is something that has been growing and evolving and we must and can do better.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

I am reluctant to interrupt such a personal, passionate and very genuine speech but I remind the Senator that if he wants to bring in his seconder, he has an opportunity to do so.

Senator Tom Clonan

I lost the clock. I will hand over to Senator McDowell.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

Senator Clonan can continue for a moment if he wishes.

Senator Tom Clonan

No.

Senator Michael McDowell

I second the motion. I am reluctant to intervene in such a contribution because it is not merely passionate but also educational to hear a first-hand account of some of the realities for young people in Ireland, in particular disabled young people. Senator Clonan's commitment to those with disability is not simply personal; it is ideological. I admire him greatly for what he has done, the stances he has taken and the voice he is for those who are disabled in Ireland. Their's is a bleak situation.

I was reminded by my parliamentary assistant today that, in 2017, I wrote an article about the crisis not merely of homelessness but hopelessness among the younger generation in Ireland. It does not just apply to those with disability; it applies right across the younger generation in Ireland. As the motion mentions, the intention to emigrate and escape what appears to be a particularly unattractive future is a reality. It is a political reality. We as a community should not underestimate the voice of youth. Those politicians who are blithely sailing into the next general election are going to find out, to their cost, how serious it is to disappoint an entire generation. My generation is comparatively wealthier and the younger generation comparatively poorer than when I was a young man first interested in politics many years ago.

When I was a young child going to school, we had a cleaning lady in our house. The reason we had a cleaning lady is her husband had lost his job during the cement strike in the 1960s and she had to go out to work and she came to our house to work. She became a real friend of our family. She used to make my lunch every day when I came back from school, and she explained her family circumstances. I want to put on the record of this House that her daughter, who was a good secondary student, left school at the age of 16 to take a job in a sewing factory in Ballyfermot. Her boyfriend got an apprenticeship at the age of 17 in CIÉ and the pair of them could, by the time they got married at 18 or 19 - I have forgotten the exact age they were - put down a deposit on a house in Tallaght where they had a family of seven children. He was working and she looked after the children at home. Everything has changed utterly. Whether that was a good circumstance or a bad one, that is what they aspired to. They had their own home. No youngsters now have any parallel expectation of home ownership. It is not an ideological point, but if we say to an entire generation, which is the problem for the Government, that they are not going to have a proprietary or economic interest in their community, they might as well emigrate because there is nothing here with high rents, housing shortages and the like. If the Government does not address their agenda, it should not be surprised if the result is a very savage condemnation in political terms. One might talk about the opportunism and populism of those who offer apparently simple remedies to their problems, but if the Government is not seen to address them itself with conviction, and a determination and radicalism to deal with their futures, the result is going to be very serious for the democratic future of this country.

Those politicians who think a good budget will see them through are going to be sorely disappointed.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

I thank both Senators, one for a very profound proposition and the other for seconding the Private Members' motion.

Senator Erin McGreehan

I welcome the Minister of State to the House to discuss this very important issue. I wrote a few notes as I listened to Senator Clonan's contribution. In conversations with friends and colleagues yesterday evening, one of the complaints I heard about the budget was the lack of new thinking in it around people with disabilities. Rather than punishing people, we should incentivise them to work by changing the tax code and presenting things as supports as opposed to benefits. The budget is a very strong one. I am very ambitious for every person on this island and I firmly believe that it is abhorrent that people with a disability do not enjoy the same access to society as others. Senator Clonan and I share the belief that we must support rather than punish someone who is trying to get on. It is about creating equity in the system as opposed to saying we are all equal because we are not equal unless we are given a leg up and support. I wholeheartedly support Senator Clonan when it comes to these issues.

The budget has good measures on the cost-of-living crisis. There are huge problems in the global economy and national economies. The Government, in the budget, has tried to find ways to support people to get through this winter. That is in the short term but we have also put money away for the long term in case there is worse to come.

The specific issues that affect young people are very important. Fianna Fáil has a fantastic young wing, Ógra Fianna Fáil, and a very active disability network. Both of these networks work together to shape policy and work with Ministers and at European level on disability and across every single sector. This issue does not relate only to housing, disability or one Department. The motion rightly highlights the intersectionality of the problems that face people every single day of the week. People from a disadvantaged background will find it difficult to gain entry to university. I would never have been able to go to university without a grant and I would not have been able to do other things without support. I would not have a house now if I had not lived with my parents for four years and saved money. Fianna Fáil understands that it is really difficult for very many people.

I will highlight some of the budget provisions that will benefit young people and everybody else. The budget is sustainable and will help people this year and in the following years. It introduced significant reductions in the cost of public services, education and health. As has been rightly said, it increased social welfare supports and put money back into people's pockets through tax cuts. Overall, the budget is comprehensive, fair and progressive and will tackle this unprecedented crisis.

The budget provides a once-off €1,000 reduction in the student contribution for eligible students in 2022. This is a major reduction in costs and a great support for any family sending a child to college. The once-off double monthly payment for those in receipt of the SUSI maintenance grant is money that will go straight into the pockets of struggling students and will help them to get through the next few months.

We now have full employment. Ten years ago, it was impossible for young people to secure part-time jobs but those jobs are now available. The budget has extended the public transport fare reduction and youth travel card discount of 50%. These are all positive measures that will help young people. The next few months will not be easy for anyone but these budget provisions will help.

Housing is an issue for everyone. We are dealing with a decade of undersupply and under-management of housing policy. We need 50,000 houses to be built each year because there has been no housing delivery for the past ten years. We had Covid and Brexit and now we have the Ukrainian crisis. Houses are now being delivered and there is planning permission in the system for 45,000 homes. Over 23,000 houses have been completed this year and this will affect families and households. There are not enough houses but with this housing delivery, people are moving into homes. We need to do a lot more work and back the Housing for All strategy because it is going to work. Time is of the essence in housing but, unfortunately, I am out of time. We need delivery and that will come with the support of the Minister of State and his colleagues.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

I thank the Senator for addressing the time question while I was distracted.

Senator Mary Seery Kearney

Senator Clonan's speech has established a very important point, with which I agree, namely, that there is nothing like keeping lived experience at the heart of politics and reminding Members of both Houses that when we make decisions in here it impacts people's lives. It is important with regard to decisions around disabilities and students that there is accountability. I claim the same place, although obviously to a much smaller extent, when it comes to surrogacy and the failure to act or move. Having people with lived experience at the table is incredibly important. Nothing about us without us is certainly the philosophy of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. Senator McGreehan and I have been members of the committee for the past two years and we are delighted that we have been joined on it by Senator Clonan. We remind people every week that the decisions being made are very important, and the same applies to the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

We saw the election in Italy last weekend. We saw the awful danger from the fallout from the financial crash and the manner in which the EU dealt with it, which was very different from the way it dealt with the Covid crisis. Consequently, the Irish Government was also able to deal with things differently. When we look at all of that, we should be very chastened and defensive of our democracy. I completely agree with others on that.

We need to have not too far off on the horizon a projection of hope that says we see the issues and will deal with them. We do not always deal with issues fast enough but we certainly accept that young persons starting or finishing college do not have the same opportunities to own their own homes and they face challenges in terms of the sheer volume of work. It is a very different experience from the one that many of us experienced. I did not leave school and go to college but left school and went to work. However, we had an aspiration that by the time we reached a certain age we would own property, and I did. We owe a duty of care to young people that we hand them a scenario in which the climate issue, the financial situation and the right to home ownership are being dealt with. We must have a sense of urgency all of the time and a vision of hope.

There are many issues that we can pick out or criticise. There is no question about that. I am not going to begin to attempt to defend what has been the lived experience of people with disabilities, because we have a massive body of work to do in that area. I see people like the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, doing a huge amount of work. They are pushing all of the time. Sometimes they are pushing against an inertia that wants to hold onto an old way of doing things. We need to do that.

The Housing for All plan is not being delivered as quickly as I would like. I get frustrated. I have the privilege of sitting on the housing committee so I get to say that on a regular basis. I get the opportunity to input that. However, we see advances. Certainly, my party is a party of home ownership. It is one of my own particular passions. If people do not own their homes, what will happen when they retire and there is a drop in income? Eventually, this will come back on the State if we do not act on it quickly.

In regard to students, yesterday we saw a budget that shows the commitment of the Minister, Deputy Harris, that year-on-year fees will drop. We saw a significant intervention, which was the €1,000 decrease in fees this year. We have postgraduates and PhDs and we are now addressing the third level. It is very much the Minister's passion to make sure that year-on-year we will do better. Similarly, in ensuring we have student accommodation, we have looked at how students are able to give notice of only 28 days. That is unique to them. There are aspects we are building in that are student focused, but we have got to do that.

I thank the Independent Senators for tabling this motion because we have to keep students in focus. We have to ensure they are supported and feel confident that we have a vision for their future while we are acting in the here and now. Some €42 million was allocated to the programme for access to higher education between 2017 and 2022. That is dedicated funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and for bursaries. There are other subtle things that do not often get talked about. I wish I could speak for longer, but there you go.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

The Minister of State has agreed that he will wait for a spokesperson from each party to have spoken before he responds. Then we will call further speakers.

Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile

We all wish that Senator Seery Kearney could speak for a bit longer, but this is one of those debates that is of great use and great importance. It is one that is particularly relevant at the time we are in.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a bheith linn agus páirt a ghlacadh sa dhíospóireacht thábhachtach seo. Tá an ceart againn é a phlé agus tá sé fiúntach mar dhíospóireacht. Molaim an grúpa Neamhspleách as an rún a chur os ár gcomhair anocht.

Unfortunately, I do not think that it is a stretch to say that the reality in many cases is that this State has failed its young people. I say that reluctantly. Sadly, we see it every day as we board a train that is crowded with students who are facing an hours-long commute because they cannot find accommodation. We see it as we chat to the barista who tells us that they taking a year out from studies because they cannot afford the fees. We see it as we listen to younger friends and family plan for a life abroad, not because of a sense of adventure, but because of the fear of a future in Ireland. These anecdotes are not the exception; indeed, recent Red C research for the National Youth Council of Ireland suggests they are the norm. It found that more than 70% of young people aged 18 to 24 in this State are considering emigrating because they think they would enjoy a better quality of life elsewhere. Some 80% are fearful of the future; 50% report worsening mental health in the context of the cost of living; 40% are less happy than they were six months ago; and almost 50% say they are struggling to make ends meet. Their fears and beliefs with regard to the cost of living, which is what we are here to discuss tonight in terms of the thrust of the Private Members' business, are not unfounded. The lack of progress on raising the rate of jobseekers’ allowance paid to those under the age of 25 to bring it into line with that paid to over-25s, along with the lack of movement on removing subminimal rates of minimum wage for under-20s, means that even as prices continue to soar, there is little change for many young people.

On housing, a recent report by the Residential Tenancies Board shows that the average rent for a new tenancy in the first quarter of 2022 was €1,460 State-wide and €2,015 in Dublin. Such rents are simply untenable for anyone, never mind young people who are starting out in life or seeking to start out in life.

Students are particularly vulnerable to the housing crisis. With only 716 homes available to rent on 1 August, many young people who have spent years studying to get to college are now being forced to reconsider their future. The University of Galway has said that of the 300 students who deferred their places this year, 92 said that accommodation was the reason. Trinity College Dublin has seen a 20% increase in deferral requests from round one of the CAO process and 10% say accommodation is the reason for that.

The case in relation to home ownership is equally dire. A recent report by the ESRI shows that home ownership among people aged 25 to 34 dropped from 60% in 2004 to just 27% in 2019. The same report projects that 50% of young people will not own their own home by the age of retirement. The Government must significantly increase the number of social and affordable houses provided and impose rent freezes for three years to give young people certainty and stop rents rising even further.

We know the cost-of-living crisis is having a devastating impact on young people - many examples have been cited already - and particularly on those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable. In a recent study of members by the National Youth Council of Ireland, 72% either agreed or strongly agreed that they saw an increase in deprivation among young people in the community as a result of the increase in the cost of living.

Youth work changes the lives of young people like building resilience, confidence and new skills to navigate life challenges, but this crisis is having an impact on the ability of organisations that support young people to provide these vital and crucial services. The new allocation of €1.16 million, a 1.6% increase, will not even cover inflation. This means that in real terms funding to these organisations has actually been reduced. Funding that should be spent on direct work with young people has to be diverted to cover rising energy, heating and food costs. At the very least, the Government must immediately address the increased overheads on heating, electricity, insurance and food by extending supports provided for community and voluntary sectors to youth work organisations as well.

The toll that this worsening crisis and the lack of effective support has had on young people's mental health cannot be understated. Record numbers of young people are seeking mental health support in the wake of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Some 1,220 young people presented to an emergency department in 2021 with a mental health issue, which marked a 40% increase in just three years. An emergency department is not the place for anyone suffering from mental ill health. Early intervention is and will continue to be key in effectively addressing mental ill health, but long waiting lists mean young people are left without the professional supports they desperately need. Figures show that there are currently 10,500 young people waiting on primary care psychology, with 4,000 waiting over a year for an appointment. With waiting lists like this, it is no wonder that young people are reporting worsening mental health and reporting to emergency departments. Unfortunately, even where support is provided it may often not be specialist support, as was the case for 115 young people who presented to the HSE for eating disorders and who were referred to non-eating-disorder specialist inpatient facilities.

Young people are in the grips of a mental health crisis. The Government provision of €14 million in additional funding for mental health is woefully inadequate in the context I have just laid out. What future is there for Ireland if we do not invest in our young people? Where will our dedicated young nurses, doctors and healthcare workers be to help to fix our broken health system? Where will the young skilled electricians, plumbers and plasterers be when more and more houses are needed to fix our housing crisis? Where will our highly trained young teachers and childcare providers have gone when we need them to educate the next generation? While the measures contained in the budget for young people are welcome - and I do welcome them - they do not go far enough to effectively address the crisis that our young people are facing. I will finish on this last sentence.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

I thank the Senator for finishing, not because of the sentiments-----

Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile

No, the Leas-Chathaoirleach is very good. Much like Senator Seery Kearney, I wish I had more time. I will close by saying that a generation is facing massive cost-of-living challenges that will have long-lasting impacts on their education, careers and mental health.

We can do much better and we can do much more. I thank my Independent colleagues for bringing this motion.

Senator Annie Hoey

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.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

It is apt that at this juncture that I welcome the young people in the Gallery, some of whom are from the Union of Students in Ireland. They are welcome.

Senator Frances Black

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.

Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach (Deputy Thomas Byrne)

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir Clonan as an rún seo a chur os comhair an Tí. This is a very important motion. We have heard heartfelt statements from lived experience, particularly that of Senator Clonan. It is a welcome opportunity to raise these issues; to discuss, as the Seanad does in a reflective way, where we are as a country; to challenge the Government; to raise important issues; and to see how we can do better.

The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is busy with Dáil and official business. He hoped to be here but times changed and so on. Up until ten minutes beforehand, he was hoping to be here. He was going to take the debate as he is the Minister with responsibility for young people and children. He sends his apologies that he cannot be here.

Young people in Ireland, despite all the challenges, have shown themselves to be resilient, capable and creative. It is young people who have led the way in ensuring that Ireland is a more caring and compassionate society, for example by supporting and driving through marriage equality; by repealing the eighth amendment; by speaking about mental health, as Senator Ó Donnghaile mentioned; and by pushing governments to take stronger action on climate change. Senator Clonan has very eloquently outlined the challenges that people with disabilities and their families face every day in this country.

In the past the voices of young people were silenced, sometimes shamefully. The importance of learning from the past by building a society where we do not fail children, as happened in previous decades, means that the voices of children and young people must be heard and taken seriously by all of us. Ireland has now become a world leader in listening to young people. We have a national strategy for children and young people's participation in decision-making, the first such strategy in Europe. We have Comhairle na nÓg which is actually having a real impact. In recent years, the Irish Second-Level Students Union, ISSU, has become centrally involved in exam planning, which is what you would expect. Comhairle na nÓg worked hard on the youth travel card with the National Youth Assembly of Ireland and the Rural Youth Assembly. Our national LGBT youth strategy was a world first.

Young people should and do offer us a definition of our modern republic that we must all aspire to, faced with the challenges that have been outlined, rather than scorn or deem unrealistic. I am not going to deem any of the challenges that have been mentioned by Senators as unrealistic or impossible to meet. Young people face great economic and climate challenges, structural inequality and a more unstable world than I enjoyed in my youth. When we were in college, and Bill Clinton was in the White House, it seemed like every global problem could be resolved through talks with the Americans. That was the way we viewed things, but that seemed to change at some point. I am acutely aware of the difficulties in areas like education, health and building a family life. We can all do better for everyone, regardless of background.

A common theme, apart from what Senator Clonan spoke about in terms of disability services, was housing, which is obviously a key problem in this country. I am conscious that young people are disproportionately more likely to be renters and face severe challenges in getting and keeping accommodation. The number of young adults experiencing homelessness in Ireland has increased, and we are deeply concerned about that. The programme for Government commits to developing a youth homeless strategy and we have the Housing for All strategy. We now have the highest number of first-time buyers since 2007. I accept fully that the average age of a first-time buyer has gone up - there is no question about that - but we have the highest number now since 2007. Our top priority is to solve the housing crisis and get more houses built.

I will make a few more points before I read the script that the Minister has provided and reiterate the sentiments that he wanted to emphasise in his role as Minister with responsibility for children and young people. Our emigration rates are significantly lower than they were when I started secondary school. The only contribution with which I had a quibble was that of Senator McDowell, when he spoke about the golden era of the 1960s when an 18-year-old cleaner could buy a house in Tallaght. I accept that the average age of home buyers has gone up, but I must say that in 1960 my mother was taken out of school at the age of 13 to work in a café. My father lived in a house in Drogheda with ten children and two adults and the father was a garda. Senator McDowell talks about the idea that there was some golden era that was richer, but that is not the case. This is a transformed country, despite the problems that have been outlined by people in this debate. I accept that there are problems and I do not reject them but this is a transformed country for every sector of society, including young people. In 1960, there were 2.8 million people, young and old, in this country. We now have 2.5 million people working. The country has been absolutely transformed beyond all recognition. We have one of the highest rates of participation in third level education. There is a cohort of young people in Trinity College Dublin, UCD or the technological universities which simply would not be there in Britain or France because the rates are much lower in those countries. I do not say all of that to reject any of the challenges that the Senators have outlined or to reject the stories that they have told, which I accept are utterly heartfelt and are designed to rightly challenge us to pursue even better policies, but simply to make the point that this is a transformed country.

I will turn to homelessness, which is of huge concern. We have a Government youth homelessness strategy. The aim of this strategy is to help people between the ages of 18 and 24 who are homeless or at risk of being homeless. It is recognised that the causes of youth homelessness as well as the experiences of young people in emergency accommodation system are totally different from those of the older homeless population.

The strategy is looking at the causes and experiences of homelessness among young people with a view to putting in place strategic interventions to prevent entry into homelessness and improve services and supports to help people get out of homelessness. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently finalising actions and liaising with key stakeholders, including the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We hope the strategy will be published next month. This is part of the overall Housing for All strategy to get more houses of all types, not just private houses, houses for first-time buyers, social houses, affordable purchase or affordable rental. We constantly challenge ourselves to build as many as possible, notwithstanding the challenges we face, because that all feeds into it.

Senator Hoey raised the issue of notices to quit. There is a significant problem in that regard at the moment and it is one the Government is working to address in a way that is sustainable and works to protect renters but also ensures housing supply. The State has to be a major supplier of housing, and it is. We want to get the numbers up but we are providing significant volumes of social housing, way more than were provided at many times in the past.

The issue of mental health was raised by a number of colleagues. Sharing the Vision is the national mental health policy and provides the framework for the future development of the mental health system, including for children and young people. It aims to enhance the provision of mental health services and supports across a broad continuum from mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention to acute and specialist mental health service delivery from 2020-30. The 2023 mental health budget will be approximately €1.2 billion, a record budget for mental health services. Funding provided in 2023 will enhance services in a number of key areas, including access to cognitive behavioural therapy, expanding art therapy and online mental health supports for children and young people.

As regards education, Ireland has among the highest participation rates in education in the world. I know there are people who have deferred college places. Some of them have said the housing crisis was responsible for that. The truth is that as the Minister, Deputy Harris, has outlined, deferral rates are in line with previous years. There is a lot of talk about emigration. Emigration rates are substantially lower than they were in 2013, and way lower than they were in 1960. There is hope. I attended the GradIreland fair today. Our best and brightest were there, looking at career options. I was very impressed by the number of people who came to listen to me and a representative of the European Commission talk about careers in EU institutions. Our best people were there, looking to see what options were available to them. A significant number of those options and opportunities were in those country, including in the European institutions in Dublin and in County Meath.

The Government is conscious of the cost of third level education. As a former spokesperson on education, I know this is a deeply difficult debate. In her time as a student leader, Senator Hoey was very vocal in pushing for free fees. We are going in that direction now. None of us wanted to grasp that nettle but it turns out that the public finances are such that we can now do it. As Senators will be aware, the Government announced in the budget a once-off reduction of €1,000 in the student contribution fee because the public finances have been managed in an appropriate way and people have worked really hard, including students, and paid tax to enable us to be able to redistribute this. There is a reduction in the contribution fee for apprentices, a one-off extra payment on the student maintenance grant and a once-off increase of €1,000 to support SUSI-qualified post-graduate students.

When the previous Government was in power, Fianna Fáil's priority in opposition was an issue of which Members will not have even heard unless they are in that sector. The priority of Fianna Fáil and its leader, the current Taoiseach, was to restart SUSI grants for post-graduate students. We worked really hard behind the scenes to bring that about. Those grants had been abolished but they are now back. The maintenance grants were abolished in 2011 or 2012 but we got them back. I would like the grants to be higher. Their abolition had a negative effect on participation rates at third level. Students and researchers told me they were almost lonely in the laboratories or libraries because there were fewer numbers there. We believed it was very disadvantageous to people from a poorer background not to be able to do research or postgraduate study. It was also bad for Ireland Inc as we depend on those students to be able to do the work that modern companies need to be done.

The Government has increased the student assistance fund, introduced a reduction of €500 in the contribution fee from next year for applicants earning up to €100,000 and increased student maintenance grants. We have also changed the non-adjacent and adjacent distances and that has helped many people, particularly in the Dublin commuter belt.

I make the point in reply to Senator Clonan that we discussed the state of disability services all summer with the Taoiseach. I am sure he has spoken to the Taoiseach on the matter but, if he has not, I am sure the Taoiseach would be more than happy to speak to him. We know that things are not working. We know that more money than ever before seems to be spent yet the lived experience, as the Senator described it, is that people are not getting the services. All present know that from our constituents coming to speak to us on it. My wife works as a nurse in respite services for children with intellectual disabilities, so I know what is going on at the coal face. Leaving aside the improvements delivered in the budget, I was speaking to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, last night. There is a lot of work going on to bring about a structural change in the way services are delivered for people with disabilities to recognise, as the Senator put it, their right to be participating adults and participating citizens in society. That is a priority for us and for the Taoiseach. I know that not everything is perfect but I believe we have made good progress in special education. There are far more special classes coming on stream again. When I was education spokesperson in opposition, I insisted the Government bring in legislation to force schools to open special classes. It was not the case that every school was refusing to do so but some were refusing and may still be. We fought to change that and the then Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, eventually agreed to it. This is our commitment. We are working hard on it. Having spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, I have hope that in the coming months there will be big changes in how disability services are delivered. There will always be room for improvement but we will always strive to do our best.

I am proud of what we did in the budget yesterday, which is giving real help to people. It has been possible this year with a budget surplus. We could decide to just go to the markets and borrow even more money and spend it, which would be lovely because we would be able to do many of the things to which the Senator referred. We are aware that there would be consequences to that, however. We have seen from the experience next door that if you go to the markets to borrow money, you have to do what the markets want you to do. This year, because the economy is going okay and people are working hard, we are not going to the markets in the way that would have been necessary a few years ago. That is positive for the economy and I hope it is positive for overall sustainability as well in making sure that we can keep these tax receipts, encourage business to come into the country and, as was done last night in a financial resolutions passed by a vote of the Dáil, save up, strategic funding from some of the corporation tax receipts so that we can protect these services into the future.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire Stáit, as ucht an freagra cuimsitheach sin.

Senator Victor Boyhan

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to deal with the motion. I thank my colleagues, Senators Clonan and McDowell, for teeing up and leading off on what we think is a constructive motion. It was never our intention to create division but, rather, to share our lived experiences. That is key in all of this.

I only have one ask of the Minister of State and I wish to stay specific in that regard because this is a broad topic. My ask relates specifically to homelessness in Dublin. Yesterday was budget day. Yesterday evening, however, I decided to walk the streets of Dublin and meet at first-hand representatives of many of the wonderful agencies - they are not State agencies, although they receive State funding - and see the work they do. I took two trips: one last night and another very early this morning. What did I see? I met people of different traditions, cultures and economic backgrounds who were waiting in long queues for food support. They were not all homeless. There were people who were in bedsits and accommodation who, unfortunately, do not have much money to feed themselves. I met people dishing out cold pizza - several of the stations do not have the facilities to provide it hot. I do not wish to identify the specific parts of Dublin I visited as doing so would not be helpful. On streets off O'Connell Street, I met children. I spoke to a woman from the Roma community who shared her experiences of domestic violence. She had two children with her and thought it was easier to go out and look through bins on the streets.

She described how a kind pizza company leaves pizzas in a box and she knows where to go, as do many other people in her community who live in the heart of Dublin. I spoke to three Ukrainians and all they were looking for was water. They were in supported accommodation here in Dublin. Two were men and one was a woman. What really disturbed me was the number of children - teenagers. I keep two books on my desk since coming to the Seanad. One is the Constitution of Ireland and the other is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a really important book that everyone should have on their desk.

I went back this morning and met some more people. By arrangement, I was told to go to McDonald's on Grafton Street where there was a kind person who brought people in to offer them a free €3.03 breakfast burger. It actually happened this morning because I met them. I made the trip there this morning and had one of the burgers. What an amazing organisation it is that does this outreach, and it is not a State agency either. There were a variety of people and circumstances there.

On my way back, I came through these parts, around Molesworth Street and Grafton Street. I counted 16 people, more than half of whom were below 18 years of age. Three were huddled together at St. Anne's Church on Dawson Street, two were in half a tent that had blown down on South Frederick Street. It was really shocking.

What are we saying? These people are someone's son, daughter, brother, sister or child. They all have some connection. These are vulnerable young people, particularly the ones I engaged with. They are exposed to exploitation, prostitution, criminals, and opportunistic people wanting to take advantage of them and of the circumstances they are in.

What are we doing about it? My request is we focus on Dublin in particular. There are many issues but I want to speak about the challenges facing our city. In the streets and lanes around our Parliament are young people who are left exposed to all sorts of issues, who are vulnerable, and who need our support. When I say a responsive and a holistic approach, I mean a targeted approach within days where State agencies see how they can focus specifically and reach out to these people, overtly or covertly, by engaging with An Garda Síochána, the HSE and other services. I have given a commitment that I will continue to link in daily with these agencies for the next ten days. I would like to think our emergency agencies would be out responding.

I will finish on the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which Ireland is a signatory and under which we have given certain guarantees. Children have the right to be treated equally; the right to have their best interests considered by the people making decisions about them; the right to information; the right to be protected from harm; the right to be with their family or those who can care for them best; the right to be safe from harm and neglect; the right to healthcare, nutritious food and clothing; the right to housing; the right to education; the right to rest; importantly, the right to play; and the right to be treated fairly by a just system. I will finish on that. My appeal to the Minister of State specifically on this issue is that we respond immediately and reach out to young people. When I say young people, they are all below the age of 18. They need our help and our support. I ask the Minister of State to use his influence and good offices to keep the focus on this matter.

Senator John Cummins

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thank the Senators for bringing forward this Private Members' motion. I will focus on the housing elements. The motion calls for a plan to be devised and implemented to address issues related to accommodation for young people and their families, making use of vacant properties and providing social housing to those in need. As someone who sits on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who is a strong advocate for bringing derelict and vacant properties back into productive use and who has actively worked on many projects in my city and county of Waterford, I could not agree more that more needs to be done in this space. It is important, however, to point to the schemes that are in place and that are not being utilised to the necessary extent by local authorities. There is the repair and lease scheme, and 50% of all repair and lease units have been delivered in Waterford. While this is great for us in that it has provided one- and two-bed accommodation in city centre locations, it should not be the case that Waterford has 50% of all the units. There are nine local authorities in this country that have failed to deliver even a single unit under this scheme, despite the fact there are 100 units being delivered at this time in Waterford under the same scheme. If it can be delivered in Waterford, there is no reason it cannot be done in other locations. There is also the new Croí Cónaithe towns and villages scheme to activate derelict properties for use by owner-occupiers. There is the repair and lease scheme I mentioned, the Living City initiative, which was extended in the budget yesterday to 2026, and the buy and renew scheme for local authorities to bring those vacant units back into use. More needs to be done by our local authorities. It is not that the finance and the tools are not there. It is that they are not being utilised in certain areas to the extent they should be.

On supporting those who want to own their own home, it is important to point out the initiative that was introduced in 2017, which is the help-to-buy scheme. The certainty of this scheme was brought about yesterday by a two-year extension. This will be welcomed by individuals and families who want to get their foot on the property ladder. That scheme has helped 36,500 people, including 850 in Waterford, to purchase or build their own home. Not to be scoring political points here in the Chamber but it is important young people understand that every Opposition party wants to remove from young people that essential support which helps them get a foot on the property ladder. Those parties are saying they will give one month back in terms of tax credit for renters, which we have gone a long way towards addressing in yesterday's budget with €500 per year, per person. A couple in a house will get a €2,000 tax credit in January if they are renting. What the Opposition are saying is they will give a month's tax credit but will take €30,000 away with the other hand. That is very disappointing and it is disingenuous for parties to be presenting themselves as in some way supporting home ownership when in reality they are doing absolutely nothing or not even proposing anything and are looking to take away supports already provided by Government.

I will touch on the area of student accommodation. The Government needs to take more direct involvement in this area. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, has been to the fore in saying we need to do more in this space. The State has to get involved actively in delivering along the lines of the cost rental model we have introduced for new homes being delivered in Ireland. This has to be rolled out for student accommodation too because there is a viability issue where student accommodation is being built that is unaffordable for many students. We have to look at the cost rental model where subsidies are put in place by the State to make the rents affordable for students in the long term. This accommodation will be in the stock of universities and colleges for many years to come.

In the area of housing, nobody on the Government side is saying more cannot be done.

Of course, more can be done but we have to acknowledge and be honest with people by saying that only five or six years ago we were building 5,000 homes in this country. We are now up to 26,500 homes and we will continue to ramp that up over the coming years. We have a plan. We will stick to that plan and we will deliver the homes required for this generation and the next. We have to support young people to be able to own their own homes. That is why the help-to-buy scheme, the new shared equity scheme, the local authority affordable purchase scheme and cost rental are key to delivering, as is focusing on social homes for those who need them most.

Senator Aisling Dolan

I thank the Senators who tabled the motion, which allows us to discuss the issue of young people and the challenges they face. We know that we are in uncertain times, that there is a lot of anxiety and that the past two years, when we had to deal with Covid and the lockdowns, have been harrowing. This has impacted all age groups but particularly young people. As a spokesperson for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, I am very aware of that. I am a member of the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health, as is Senator Black, who chairs it, and we have heard from so many groups that tell us of the day-to-day challenges.

I represent east Galway and Roscommon. I come from Ballinasloe, which is an area that has its own challenges, especially around the Pobal deprivation index. We have a delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, band 1-level school in Ballinasloe. I am very proud that we are seeing investment in DEIS supports. These are supports for schools to get access to DEIS-level supports. That is now one in four schools throughout Ireland. More than 1,000 schools are getting access to those supports.

We have also seen an increase in special education teachers. An extra number of places have been introduced under the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Madigan, and the previous Fine Gael-led Government. This Government has had a focus on special education. It is very clear that there has been a major focus on children from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and her Department with an increase in child benefit. For primary school level, we want to see that we are maintaining teachers in our schools in rural areas, which is about reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. We are looking at reducing that again by one point.

On students, last week we passed phenomenal, landmark legislation, namely, the Higher Education Authority Bill 2022. This will provide for the funding agency for third level. This Government has created a brand new Department for further and higher education. The Government has focused on and prioritised students. We are seeing an increase in respect of SUSI grants and the student assistance fund. This fund is to allow students in difficult situations to access this fund through student unions. PhD students, through Science Foundation Ireland and Irish Research Council programmes, are also seeing an increase of more than €500.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, spoke last week about accommodation, as my colleague, Senator Cummins, mentioned. We need to see that technological universities have the wherewithal to purchase, create, design and develop accommodation for students. In the short term, the rent-a-room scheme has been promoted by all universities in cities and towns throughout Ireland. The reason technological universities are so crucial for young people is that we now have university campuses in towns across Ireland and not just in our cities. We are now seeing them in towns across the west. The Atlantic Technological University and the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone have been crucial in developing third level excellence in areas outside our main city centres and urban areas. We want to encourage families living in those areas to participate in rent-a-room schemes. They will be people who potentially were students who have gone through the system.

I again thank the Senators who have tabled this motion because it is very important to highlight that while we see these benefits coming through the budget, that does not underestimate in any shape or form the mental health challenges that are out there. We see high levels of addiction in some of our towns. We are seeing that happen and we need to have those supports in place. Through the Department of Health, we are looking at the supports that have been put in place around disabilities and those networks, and around the community healthcare organisation, CHO, schemes throughout Ireland. We need to see our public health services working with communities on the ground. We need to see recruitment in place in our CHOs and, in particular, that people are recruited into those services at rural level. That can be very difficult when there are vacancies in some of those roles. In the area in which I live, we are looking for a psychologist post for our day hospital in Ballinasloe. That is crucial and it is needed. We need those posts to be in place. We need addiction services in place in rural areas and we need to see that as soon as possible.

I thank the young people who are with us here today. The voices that are being heard are crucial. The Minister, Deputy Harris, in implementing the legislation relating to the Higher Education Authority, made sure that student voices are included when it comes to boards of management for universities. It is also crucial that the students' union voice is included.

Senator John McGahon

I am 31 years of age and I am the youngest Member of this House. I was thinking back to 2009 when I did my leaving certificate. We were coming out of the height of the economic recession and some of the toughest financial times, not just this country but the world had seen. When I think about people I know who emigrated back then, they did so out of economic necessity because they were no jobs in this country. It was not just young people. Those who had been in employment for 20 or 30 years in construction, etc., had to move. It affected all age groups in society at the time. When I fast forward ten or 12 years and look at some of my friends who emigrated in their mid-20s to places such as the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and across the board, it is safe to say that the number of people who emigrate out of economic necessity is much lower than it was between 2008 and 2011 when the country and its economy were at rock bottom.

Of course, people still emigrate today out of economic necessity. That is absolutely the case. I am not trying to deny that but they also emigrate for other reasons, such as advancement in job opportunities, the ability to experience another country, the ability to live and learn in another country and to experience a different type of culture. At the age of 31, I have seen most of my friends who have spent their 20s abroad making the decision to come back to Ireland. They come back much more rounded and educated and with professional ability. They are able to come back and get good jobs. Obviously, the cost of living and housing are difficult situations, but there is no country in the world where everything is great and it is a promised land of milk and honey and so on. That is not the case. Everywhere has its own opportunities but everywhere also has its own-----

(Interruptions).

Senator John McGahon

If it is all right, I am just trying to speak without the theatrics. We are all allowed to express different points of view. The people who have tabled this motion, quite rightly, have a point of view but those on this side of the House also have a point of view.

(Interruptions).

Senator John McGahon

Unfortunately, no speakers from the Gallery are allowed, only Members, whether people put their hands up or not.

The point is, without the theatrics, I am putting forward a point of view based on my experience as a young person in this country. I am someone who came out of the height of a recession in 2009. I have seen what my friends in their 20s have done throughout that period and what they are coming back to this country for now. That is important to recognise. I am not saying that everything is well and good but it is important to recognise that is the case.

When we look at the cost of living for students and young people in this country and the things we have done in the past couple of weeks, one of the big issues I have talked about is transport. Where I come from, Dundalk, the vast majority of people commute to Dublin. This has always been the way, whether it is getting on the bus to go to Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin or wherever else. That is the way they do it. We have reduced public transport fares by half. One thing we did not do is reduce fares for privately funded transport and the main way people get from my town to Dublin is via private transport. We listened to young people throughout the country who take that private transport and in the past couple of weeks we have now expanded that 50% to include private as well as public transport. To outline the real-term difference, three weeks ago, someone taking private transport from Dundalk to Dublin was paying €17 to get a return ticket. They are now paying €5.50. This is real-term money.

That is a small but key example of something we are doing to try to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. I have said previously in the Seanad that I feel young people got a terrible rap from certain sectors of society and the media at the height of the Covid pandemic for doing nothing more than enjoying themselves, including being told to move along when they were in public spaces and whatever else. We need to realise that through no fault of anyone's - it was a worldwide pandemic - young people lost two years of some of the best years of their lives, a time when they get to make lifelong friends and have really good experiences that shape their 20s and their adult outlooks. Those two years were taken away from them. We should have cut them more slack throughout the pandemic and we did not.

My sister Ruth is 21. She has just finished in UCD. She is now spending a year doing the 400 free hours of work experience she needs before she can do a masters because she wants to become a social worker. I have listened to what she has said to some of her friends. When I was 18, 19 and 20, the concept of mental health was not even spoken about among people of my age. When I speak to Ruth now and people of her age, it is spoken about. People are now prepared to speak out about mental health, about issues they are facing and about the funding that is going into it. Ten years ago, when I was 17, 18 and 19, it did not exist. It was still a taboo to talk about mental health. That is less than a decade ago.

Young people in this country are to be commended on their courage, ability to stand up and their ability to call things out whether they agree with it or not. People are perfectly entitled to agree or disagree. The whole purpose of the debate we are having today is to test opposing opinions and discuss what we think young people in this country need and want. This has been a very good debate and I commend my Independent colleagues on bringing the motion forward. I look forward to the rest of the contributions.

Senator Malcolm Byrne

I thank Senator Clonan and the Independent Members for introducing this motion on the situation of young people in Ireland. During the Covid pandemic young people have suffered more than any other sector of society. This is something we have discussed at length in this House. I hope to address many of the issues in the motion and discuss how we might find solutions.

One of the most transformational aspects of Ireland over the past 40 years has been in the levels of educational attainment. During the 1970s, fewer than two out of every ten in the 18 to 20 age cohort went on to higher education. That statistic is now approaching two out of every three. That excludes those who are going on to further education and training where far more opportunities are presented now. In the space of two generations, Ireland has transformed itself through educational opportunity. That has been done under different Governments and through a variety of means.

It was often argued that our economic and social development was based on two key things: tax and talent. The tax argument is no longer really there. Our argument for the 21st century will relate to talent. We need to ensure that we have domestic talent and also that we continue to welcome international talent. We have always been an open and tolerant country and I hope that will continue.

We have some very specific challenges at the moment. The number of places available in higher education continues to be expanded. We saw it in the budget yesterday. I am particularly glad that a significant number of the 1,000 places that were provided in the budget are in the medical and paramedical area and also in medical-related programmes. It needs to go further. One of the concerns I have related to the graduate medical programme which I believe should be expanded. The Fottrell report recommended a more attractive programme in terms of the quality of students because they would have done an undergraduate science degree or whatever and then done medicine at postgraduate level. That is beyond the means of many students.

With Bank of Ireland pulling out of the loan market for students, we need to address that question. While it is of benefit for medical graduates to be able to go abroad and get experience, we should also look at the State providing greater funds to our medical students on the proviso that there would be an expectation that if the State is giving them a grant, they would work for a period within and contribute to the public health service here.

I welcome some of the improvements that were made in the budget relating to higher education. I am happy with some of the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant reforms. I was concerned that if there was only going to be a cut in student fees, it would not benefit the most disadvantaged students because they do not pay fees. My concern relating to the higher education budget is that the net increase in core funding to higher education was only of the order of €40 million. When we saw the report on funding our future published earlier this year, the estimated shortfall in higher education funding is of the order of €307 million. While the benefit to individual students is welcome, we still have not tackled the question of the core funding crisis.

As part of the housing budget, money will be made available to higher education institutions for on-campus accommodation. We need to move to the European and American model where there is extensive on-campus accommodation. Due to the cost of construction at the moment, renting at a commercial rate is beyond the scope of the average student. Therefore, the State will need to subsidise the provision of some of that student accommodation with a view that in the long run, universities will be able to benefit from that by renting out the accommodation during the summer months. However, we need to be radical in our approach in some of those areas.

There is a specific challenge with some of the career paths that graduates can follow if they are expected to live in expensive areas. Very extensive public sector pay negotiations took place, but it is very difficult to expect graduate teachers and graduate nurses to be able to work in a city as expensive as Dublin when they are paid the same rate as somebody who is living in a rural community, for instance in the west of Ireland. We need a debate on the possibility of Dublin weighting or weighting for the major urban areas when it comes to graduate salaries. That is important in order to balance it.

This debate is worthy of consideration. We should not knock the extent of the progress we have made as a country. However, we have an obligation to ensure we address some of the challenges.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this very important debate. I thank the Independent Senators for putting the motion to the House. I welcome the young people who are in the Gallery. I thank them for being here, not just to listen to the debate on the motion before us but perhaps to engage with many of us after. This is an important motion. As somebody who has been involved in education all of my life as a teacher and as a GAA activist, at 55 I think I am still young. I still think I am relatively in touch with young people. Recognising in this debate that we have significant challenges in a post-Covid world, we may need to reconsider how we as a society and a country engage with young people.

I listened to the contributions of Senators Hoey and Clonan. I recognise particularly in the disability sector that many disabled people - both young and old - feel not just marginalised but feel they have not been listened to at all for a long time. That is a fault of society and of Governments for generations. We need to look at that.

We have a starting point for the strategy for the participation of children and young people in the decision-making process. Government should look to the citizens' assembly, the Convention of the Constitution, as a model for that young people's forum.

Former Deputy Katherine Zappone, when she was the Minister with responsibility for children, had a young person's LGBT strategy. I was struck by the number and quality of engagements with young people who were willing to participate and, in fact, rushed to do so.

Understandably, there are challenges we must work on, and they have been articulated. We must overcome those challenges. The Government must recognise the importance of young people being able to buy their own homes or rent homes at a good price. We must provide a quality environment for them to live in and quality education. To be fair to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Innovation, Research and Science, Deputy Harris, he is recognising the apprenticeship model. As a teacher myself, I recognise that the leaving certificate is not for everybody. The applied leaving certificate is available, as it should be, and is being used as a career pathway by many young people. We in this House should support that. I have spoken about that issue many times.

It is important to recognise that we will have divergent views on this motion. I believe we live in a great country. It is the best in the world. People may smile when I say that and disagree, which is fine, but we do live in a great country.

Senator Mary Seery Kearney

We do.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

We are near full employment. We have quality educational establishments. People do emigrate. I did my leaving certificate in 1984. Many of my friends left these shores to go to Boston or Melbourne to work. Many did not come back. Many of my friends left Cork as gay men and women because they could not be gay in my country. Some of them never came home. We live in a much better Ireland today.

Senator Mary Seery Kearney

Hear, hear.

Senator Barry Ward

Hear, hear.

Deputy Thomas Byrne

Hear, hear.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

There are challenges and issues but we can address them with a collective mindset governed by the need to do better. We must always remember that this is a land of opportunity. We are on the periphery of Europe and yet at its heart. Our housing system needs to be addressed. The quality of engagement in many parts of our communities needs to be looked at. I want to praise my colleague, Senator Mary Seery Kearney, for the work she is doing in her area. The issue of mental health, which was raised by Senator McGahon, was never spoken about 30 or 40 years ago. For a man to say he was suffering from depression or could not cope was unheard of. Today we can talk about that and have that conversation. That is positive.

Yesterday's budget has been described as making significant changes to many different issues facing parts of the Government programme. There is a new tax credit for renters. There is free contraception. The help-to-buy scheme has been extended. Imagine the consternation in this House 20, 30 or 40 years ago if a Minister - and a former Minister for Justice, Senator McDowell, is here - said we are giving free contraception to people under 30. Imagine the consternation there would have been.

Deputy Thomas Byrne

It would have been illegal.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

That is correct. That is the point I am making. We have many challenges but there are also many positives.

I ask the young people in the Gallery to please engage with us. Do not take us for old fogeys who are out of touch and not living in reality. We live in reality. We have nieces and nephews. Many of us in this House have sons and daughters who understand the challenges of going to college or, as someone mentioned earlier, being in a box room for the past two years and using Zoom, being unable to socialise and giving up everything. I understand that fully. Jesse Jackson, in his 1988 Democratic convention speech said, "Don't you give up ... keep hope alive ... don't surrender". To the young people in the Gallery, I say do not give up or surrender. Continue to work to make our country a great place. We in this House will work with you. The Government will facilitate and work to bring change.

I suggest to the Minister of State that we consider a citizens' assembly for young people. We have had assemblies for a myriad of other topics. It is important that we have a citizens' assembly devoted to young people, their issues and concerns, and their hopes and aspirations.

Senator Barry Ward

I welcome the Minister of State. This is a great debate on an important subject if for no other reason than it puts in the spotlight this incredibly important issue. Young people are not just young people today. They are the people who will occupy this House is a few years' time. In a few decades' time, they will be running this economy and country and contributing in businesses, lecture theatres, classrooms, hospitals and courtrooms all over this country. We can never place too great a value on the importance of providing what we need to provide for them.

In the context of this debate, it is important to acknowledge that life is not easy in this country for young people today. We should be doing everything we can to make it easier at every step along the way. I note that people now come back to Ireland. We have net inward migration. People are coming here. Other people, of course, leave. I left and came back. As Senator McGahon said, there are many legitimate and good reasons for people to leave Ireland. We hope that most of them, if not all, will return. There are only three children in my family and my two sisters live abroad. Edel lives in London and Emily has just moved from Bern to The Hague. We all hope they will return home. They have ambitions to do so within the next couple of years. I note there is now net return to Ireland, which is positive.

Mention has been made of the budget measures that were put in place yesterday specifically for young people. We can talk about those measures. I could list them but I do not know if I need to do that because people have heard them already. Yesterday's budget was a positive one for young people, as it was for many sectors of society. Senator Buttimer may already have made this point more eloquently than I can, but Ireland is vastly improved even compared with when I was a young person, which I like to think was not very long ago. It is a more progressive, accepting and inclusive place, a better place to live now than it was ten, 20 or 30 years ago. We are improving all the time. That does not for a moment mean that things are perfect. It does not mean that we should not keep trying to make it better, and to make sure it is more inclusive, progressive and accepting, and easier for people to live here. We can celebrate our progress but we can also use it as an inspiration to say we can do more and better. I would like to think that people who are young in Ireland today, irrespective of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, family background, ability, personal health, mental health or whatever else, are in a better position today than they would have been decades ago.

That does not mean there are no problems. Housing has been mentioned. I have been in UCD twice in as many weeks and I know from speaking to students there just how difficult it is for them to find accommodation. UCD is better off than many third level institutions around the country. The Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT, in my own area in Dún Laoghaire has supported a private development of student housing nearby at Baker's Corner, which will be great if and when it is built. It is years away from being built. Even then, it will still be expensive for people. An issue mentioned by Senator Cummins was the cost of off-campus private student accommodation. That must be looked at by the Government in the longer term to ensure it is affordable and accessible to everyone.

Senator Clonan mentioned his son, and I am particularly well acquainted with his family, being a neighbour. I know well what he has gone through. I know that senseless and unthinking measures have been in place in the past. They have been corrected by Senator Clonan and I hope I worked with him to ensure, for example, the Minister, Deputy Harris, dealt with one particular issue of which I am aware. That is the way it should be. When we see these things that do not work and are not there for a good reason, we should take conclusive and swift action to correct them. Not everything can be fixed and made better overnight. There are, however, many little things that need to change for the better and to be brought in tandem with the things which work well. That is the attitude we have to take.

I know the Minister of State will be communicating to his Government colleagues that the message from this House is we need to do better, although we have done a great deal. A particular phrase comes to mind in that regard and I will not trot it out here. However, we have done a great deal to develop this country as a place where young people want to be. Young people are returning to this country. Non-Irish people are coming here to make their lives in this country. I am not only talking about people who are forced to come here because of the circumstances in their own countries. Other people choose Ireland for their future, which is a good thing. We need to strive every day, week and year, through every budget and piece of legislation that goes through, to ensure we are building on the success of the past and dealing with the issues that young people face to make it as easy as possible for them.

As I said at the start, this is a great motion because, if nothing else, it is a spotlight. As other Members have said, we will disagree on the minutiae, which is as it should be, but this motion shines a spotlight on an incredibly important issue for all of us and for the future of this country. It is appropriate that we shine a light on those issues and, as a country, develop solutions to the greatest extent possible. I congratulate my Independent colleagues on the motion.

Senator Rónán Mullen

Cé mhéad ama atá agam? Six minutes. As I was listening to Senator Buttimer, I thought "Oh my God, not another citizens' assembly." It seems to me that the Government reaches for a citizens' assembly every time it does not have the answer to a complex problem and every time it wants to hide behind people rather than take responsibility. The Oireachtas is the first and foremost citizens' assembly. I am all in favour of citizens' assemblies to consult and to take the temperature of public opinion. That is all well and good but we need less talk about citizens' assemblies and more talk about how we can be a more effective Oireachtas by testing Government policy, getting a genuine hearing for amendments we propose and so on instead of the rubber-stamping exercise that is very often carried on in this place.

The other thing I was struck by as I was listening to Senator Buttimer was the narrative of praise and saying that this is the best country in the world. That is a phrase I associate with politicians on the other side of the Atlantic. I take the view that we have a slightly more sophisticated view in Europe and that thinking and reflective people tend to realise that, while this country is great in some ways, it is terrible in others. That is the truth of the matter. Let us have none of this Harold Macmillan notion that we have never had it so good. The Government is playing to the gallery and has given people free contraception and this, that and the other. That is not the test of our country's welfare. Despite all the progress people can point to in many areas, which I accept, we have gone backwards in many ways as well. Until we have politicians who are ready to talk about that and fess up to it openly, we will not be doing a service to the young people in galleries whom we want to address. This country is an extremely violent place for some. It is more violent than it ever was before. There are people caught up in drug addiction and in multigenerational educational disadvantage to a greater extent than was the case in the past. This country has disimproved in many ways while improving in many others. Let us be honest. There is a lot of misery and suffering in our country. There are many people who face tremendous challenges in their lives. Senator Buttimer referenced mental health. How much was there for people with disabilities and mental health challenges in the budget?

I had a conversation with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on my way into this room. He rightly pointed out to me that it is good we were able to pay for all of this without borrowing. That is true. He rightly pointed to the situation of our friends in Britain and the challenge they face right now. I observed to him that there was another side to this. I can remember when there was a big giveaway budget under Charlie McCreevy but there was a hell of a different mood in the country. There is not a celebratory mood in the country now. People are worried about what is coming around the corner. Senator Ward wants to make a comment. I will always give way to him.

Senator Barry Ward

Senator Mullen said that the test for welfare was not what Senator Buttimer outlined. What is the test? How is it assessed?

Senator Rónán Mullen

The test is whether there is a human dignity-led approach to policy and legislation across the board and whether attention is being paid always to the most vulnerable in our society. There is a protest taking place on the quad in my alma mater, which has now been renamed the University of Galway, at 6 p.m. this evening. I commend those who are keeping the real issues on the agenda. It is not going to be possible to provide free GP care for an additional 400,000 people. In my view, people earning between €20,000 and €30,000 do not stand to benefit very much from the budget announcements we have heard in recent days.

As a member of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, I particularly want to address the student accommodation crisis. I spoke to a university president here in Dublin last week and he made the point to me that unless there is a subvention from the State for student accommodation established by the universities, they will have to charge students €14,000 a year to get a return on their investment where they provide student accommodation. If we do the maths and divide that by the number of months in an academic year, we get €1,400 or €1,500. How can people afford that? The current generation needs an awful lot more than platitudes. We have to acknowledge that the emerging generation faces challenges that their parents and the people of my generation who are halfway between them, the mezzanine generation, did not face.

It is time for us to reflect on the nature of our political system and the seeming inability of the Government machine to deal with problems that it should be able to see coming down the tracks. Since March of this year, it was obvious that there was likely to be a major issue with student accommodation this autumn and yet the Government seems to have been caught flat-footed on this and other problems. We have heard the horror stories. The editor of The University Times in Trinity College Dublin, Ailbhe Noonan, brought to us an interview with a student who was living out of a van due to the unaffordability of student accommodation.

I realise that it is easy for me to get up here and point to the problems but I only do so because it is our job to continue to reflect on the inadequacies in our system and how they are affecting people. Issues with accommodation and practical realities such as access to good-quality healthcare are connected with mental health and the question of the resilience of our country and its people into the future. I appeal for a sense of urgency. There are things to celebrate about advances in this country but there is also a hell of a lot to regret and a hell of a lot of problems we seem very reluctant to talk about seriously in these Houses.

Senator Tom Clonan

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus leis an Aire Stáit and I thank all of my colleagues for their responses. If I heard the Minister of State correctly, his father was a garda.

Deputy Thomas Byrne

No. His father was a garda.

Senator Tom Clonan

That is something we have in common. My grandfather was a garda. He married a woman from Drogheda and had nine children. He lived in the community he policed. He had his own home and was able to send his children to school. Even back in those days, some of them actually went to university and became engineers, teachers and nuns. My dad became a garda himself and, like my grandfather, he could live in the community he served. He had his own home and five children, all of whom he put through university. I believe this is what Senator McDowell was talking about. He was not referring to any kind of a golden age. We all recognise the inequalities that existed. It was a matter of human capital and social mobility. Our parents' generation and our grandparents' generation forged a republic in which everybody had a stake in society and where there was mobility.

Deputy Thomas Byrne

My generation was the first to go to university in my family rather than my parents' generation.

Senator Tom Clonan

I grew up in Finglas. I was the first person in my family to go to Trinity. I do not consider myself as having come from a disadvantaged background but I certainly went to school with boys who did and who went on to become senior gardaí. I was in Vienna this week with a boy from Finglas who I sat next to in school. He is one of our senior police officers and is heading up the organised crime and drugs task force in this Republic. That is because in 1972 when this country did not have a pot to - I will not complete that sentence-----

Senator Rónán Mullen

Drink from.

Senator Tom Clonan

-----we were building houses. I remember standing at the end of Ballygall Avenue in Finglas with my sister in 1972 and seeing prefabricated houses going past on the back of lorries, on their way to build west and south Finglas. They were not perfect but from those estates came the boys I went to school with and the girls who went to school with my sisters and they went on to make a big contribution to Irish society. I have mentioned my friend but every professional group and area of public life is populated with people who had the advantage of a roof over their heads. I absolutely accept the Minister of State's bona fides and his commitment to ensuring that we rectify this problem but, if you are living in a family hub or a hotel, all that human capital is lost.

Despite the economic indices mentioned by many here, and it is true that Ireland has been transformed through membership of the EU and foreign direct investment, in terms of social indices, the inequal distribution of wealth and advantage has worsened.

Deputy Thomas Byrne

That is absolutely untrue.

Senator Tom Clonan

If the Minister would let me finish. We can agree to disagree.

Deputy Thomas Byrne

The opposite is the case. All the research shows that.

Senator Tom Clonan

Like Senator Buttimer, I did my leaving certificate in 1984 but if I am correct, in 1984, we had Ministers who were in their 20s. I think Mary Harney was appointed Minister in the 1980s in her 20s. We gave responsibility to young people. In fact, young people forged this State. They had a citizens' assembly, which Senator Buttimer called for. They assembled outside the GPO and took matters into their own hands. That is what young people are going to do. Before long, the young people here will be on this side of the glass and I do not think it will be in decades. I am hoping some of them will keep me on this side of the glass in the next couple of years - I hope they will pass the word among their fellow Trinity graduates.

I worked with young people in Lebanon in the 1990s. We used to bring 18- and 19-year-old soldiers in the armoured convoys, drop them off at the observation posts at night and give them a 7.62 mm machine gun and 2,000 rounds of ammunition. What does one do if one is hit up by Hezbollah? Fire up the green flare. What does one do if hit up by the Israelis or their proxies? Fire up the red flare. Prevent oneself from being forcibly disarmed. We gave them responsibility and recognised their potential and they rose to every challenge they met because we took them seriously and did not infantilise them. There is no point in having free condoms if one does not have somewhere to go and a roof over one's head.

Do I believe that Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan are sincere about rectifying this very pressing crisis? I do. When the results of the general election in 2020 came in, on the first working day back here in Leinster House, and I am sure the Taoiseach will not mind me saying this, the Taoiseach invited me in for a conversation. He made me a cup of tea and I felt heard by him. I was very struck by his speech when he assumed the role of Taoiseach. He spoke about his adult children and said that they would hold him to account. I was very struck by that part of his speech. It did give me hope that he is a sincere person who does value young people and wants to have an impact on this social indices and rectify them.

Do I trust Leo Varadkar? When Eoghan was in transition year, we happened to meet Leo Varadkar. He met and interacted with Eoghan on his level and listened to him. In fact, he said, "You can call me Leo". He said, "The rest of them in here will have to call me Taoiseach", so we will take him at his word. It was the same with Mary Lou McDonald.

I accept the positive and constructive responses here but these are the people who have to hear that narrative. We hear about Gen Z, Gen X and Gen Y. They will consider us Generation F for failure if we fail to convince them that we are doing our absolute utmost to help them realise their full human potential and self-actualisation. Housing is one of the cruellest and most pressing challenges. The consequences of it might be expressed in a certain amount of emigration but also at the next general election and the local elections. We need to be very clear in our narrative and public discourse that we will remake and reshape this Republic in the image of those who forged it. They were young people like my grandmother, who was setting fire to police stations in south County Dublin when she was 19. If my daughter, who is 18, suggested that she might do that, I would have a lot to say about it.

An Cathaoirleach

I hope you would.

Senator Tom Clonan

I commend the young people for coming into this House but I can tell them as a newcomer to this House, I have not met one person in the Seanad or Dáil who is not working in the utmost good faith to improve the situation and to make this country the best place not just to live and have an economy but the best place to live as a citizen in a society.

Senator Michael McDowell

Well done.

Question put and agreed to.

An Cathaoirleach

When is it proposed to sit again?

Senator Mary Seery Kearney

At 10.30 a.m. tomorrow.

Cuireadh an Seanad ar athló ar 7.07 p.m. go dtí 10.30 a.m., Déardaoin, an 29 Meán Fómhair 2022.

The Seanad adjourned at 7.07 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 29 September 2022.