A new report warning that people in their 20s and 30s will be the first generation to be worse off than their parents is “very sobering,” according to a junior Government minister.
The ESRI report warns that employment for 15 to 34-year-olds in the last three months of 2020 was 14% less than pre-pandemic levels.
That is compared to just 6% lower for people aged over 35.
"You are screwed." @kierancuddihy reacts to latest the ESRI report which states that home ownership rates for people in their 20s and 30s are the lowest they have ever been. Has our social contract been broken? @TheHardShoulder pic.twitter.com/VgUNnZUHIN
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) May 11, 2021
The researchers also warned that the situation could compound the 'still-lingering' effects from the post-2007 financial crisis for younger people.
They warned that young people in Ireland are now likely to be the first generation since the foundation of the State to be financially worse off than their parents.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening, the Junior Minister for Special Education Josepha Madigan says the government wants to ensure that doesn't happen.
“I have two teenagers,” she said.
“They are going to be wanting to be out in the world within the next ten years and I want to make sure they have an opportunity to buy a house, an opportunity to get a job, an opportunity to do all of the things that, despite the difficulties, we all manage to do.
“So it is a big concern. I think it is very sobering, not just for Government but for everybody looking at that.
“We have to see if we can find ways to make sure that doesn’t happen. There is no lever we shouldn’t pull to make sure the generation behind us comes up.
“There is a responsibility I think on every generation to ensure that the generation behind them has a good chance to succeed in life in every facet.”
Housing crisis
The ESRI report found that young people are experiencing wage stagnation and warned that the housing crisis was exacerbating the situation.
These callers told The Hard Shoulder that they have lost hope of ever buying their own home.
“It seems like an impossible dream,” said one.
“How has this been allowed to happen? I have gone to college, I have done a masters, I have tried to retrain and it is just kind of unbelievable.
“You kind of feel ashamed. You feel stuck.”
“I actually live in one of the counties that would supposedly be affordable for a single person,” said another.
“But I’m a single person, I live in Longford and I have actually had to move home.
“It is just a very, very depressing situation for somebody my age to be in.”
Worse-off generation
The ESRI noted that 61% of 30-year-old born in the 1960s would have owned their own home.
That figure has dropped to 32% for those born in the 1980s.
One-fifth of people born in the 80s were paying more than 30% of their income on housing at the age of 30.
That drops to 13% for people born in the 70s and 10% for those born in the 60s.
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