Future Irish generations will be lost to immigration if the cost of living crisis continues, one concerned mother has said. 

On Lunchtime Live's Election Town Hall Special, mother of five young adults Ashling, student Rebecca, Fine Gael candidate Grace Boland, Fianna Fáil candidate Shane Moynihan and Newstalk’s political correspondent Sean Defoe spoke about the cost of living crisis.

Topics covered across this election special were cost of living, healthcare, crime and childcare.

Ashling from Dublin has five young adults at home who are all looking into emigrating.

“What I would like to know is how the future politicians, or the politicians that are going to be elected, are going to handle the brain drain that we have in Ireland - because my children can't afford to move out, they are now looking at moving abroad,” she said.

“My eldest daughter has just gotten a visa to live and work in Canada - so that's one that's leaving.

“My younger two children are also looking to leave, and the reason they want to leave is because they can't afford to live here.”

Ashling said she thinks we’re not only “losing our current young adults” but we’re probably going to lose our “future generations” as well.

“I want to know what can be done and what is going to be done sooner rather than later, because I could end up with no children living in Ireland and maybe grandchildren living abroad, and that's quite upsetting for me,” she said.

"We are delivering"

Fine Gael candidate Grace Boland reinforced the parties plan to “build 303,000 houses in the next six years”.

“We are seeing housing increase every year,” she said.

“We have seen the number of new homes built trebled from 7,000 to 21,000 between 2011 and 2019 under Fine Gael.

“The number of new homes grew rapidly at over 20% a year from 2014 to 2019.

“We are building more social housing homes than ever before.

“So we are delivering and it is coming through.”

Cost of student living

Agreeing with Ashling’s points, student Rebecca said reducing or cutting third level education fees is not enough.

“I think is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't address some of the other issues we're facing as students,” she said.

“I mean accessible and affordable healthcare, accessible and affordable public transport and obviously housing being the number one issue.

“As well as being a full time student, I work 30 hours a week, and still there's no way that I can afford the cost of living without the financial help that I get from my parents.”

"Concrete steps"

Fianna Fáil candidate Shane Moynihan said the party have taken “concrete steps” in tackling cost of living for students over their time in Government.

“We have reduced the cost of public transport, which I know a lot of students depend upon,” he said.

“For people like Rebecca who are working part time as well, we have made a target intervention on the reduction of the USC rate to benefit those workers.

“In the broader pieces - looking at third level education, looking at those reductions in fees, but also looking at increasing the availability of SUSI grants for third level students as well.

“Our focus in terms of delivery thus far has been on easing the burden for students, for families and for workers, and even with initiatives like the renters tax credit as well, that has also lessened the burden on those students who are renting at the moment too.”

One-off payments

Newstalk’s political correspondent Sean Defoe said he is interested to see if any political parties will discuss one-off cost of living crisis payments in their manifestos.

“When you look [at the] cost of living, a lot of the promises in the manifestos are across the likes of social welfare, raising the pension across the board and dealing with it over a number of years,” he said.

“But also what isn't wrapped up in these is the way it's been dealt with for the last three years, has been through one-off payments.

“I'd be interested, because I haven't seen anything actually in the manifestos from the Government parties, as to whether they would be kept.

“Because when people are looking at their bills now and saying, ‘Great, this winter was all right, I got 400 quid here’ or whatever, there's no commitment to keep those going.”

Listen back here:

Protestors at the Cost of Living demonstration. 07/10/2023. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie