As we approach a general election, many of us have started to think about our priorities and the main issues we want addressed.
For Nathan Murphy, the Vice President for Campaigns at the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), the main problems affecting young people are glaringly obvious.
Murphy called for those contesting in the general election to shift their focus to Ireland's young people, stating that Budget 2025 failed to do this.
"As we seen from the Budget, the government might as well have handed a plane ticket to every person with their Leaving Cert results," he said.
"There’s no hope for young people at the moment. There’s no hope of owning your own home, or of going to college or university without financial strain.
"We need a government that actually cares about the young people of Ireland. We’ve seen the issues that are happening with health and housing. They’re not working. We need drastic change, and we need a government that will bring that change."
According to research from the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), more than seven in 10 Irish young people aged 18-24 are considering moving abroad because they think they would enjoy a better quality of life elsewhere.
Housing
Murphy said the biggest problem facing third-level students while they study, and after they graduate, is housing.
“The biggest problem at the moment is accommodation. We’re seeing more and more students commuting to college every single day, and we’re seeing less and less commitment from the current government to actually solving the student accommodation crisis," he said.
“We especially need affordable student accommodation. The building of that is something that students are definitely looking for parties to promise.
“Having to live at home is another big (problem). We’re seeing the housing crisis. We’re seeing barely any social or affordable homes being built. It’s all being snapped up by vulture funds.
"We have 160,000 vacant properties across the country and people are paying less than €300 a year on the vacant property tax. Accommodation is the biggest issue facing young people at the moment."
Murphy said the accommodation and housing crises are pushing people to commute - which brings its own range of issues.
“Problems with commuting include firstly the lack of availability of public transport. That’s a big one. We now see this new rail plan that they’re trying to implement by 2050, but that’s 25 years away.
"We're also seeing colleges talking about getting rid of on-campus parking. That’s not feasible for students that need to commute to college by car. When I was going to college, it would take me an hour on public transport, but it’s only a 15-minute drive.
“We call for free public transport for students because we’re seeing students that can’t get accommodation commuting from Cork to Dublin every day, and they’re spending upwards of €600 a month just on train tickets.
“We’ve heard of students buying tents because they weren’t able to commute home, or they weren’t able to stay somewhere. Students are sleeping in cars. It’s shocking at the moment, the availability of accommodation, and it all comes down to lack of transport then as well."
Political engagement
For young people to get the outcome they want from the next general election, they need to engage, inform themselves, and vote.
"We can see from the Budget that it’s very much favoured towards older generations because they know young people don’t vote for them, and it was a strategic way of them using the Budget to garner more voters for themselves while pricing young people out of actually living in Ireland," Murphy said.
“Young people need to look at what’s happened over the past 10, 20, 100 years and how our country is at the moment.
"Look at the way the current government have messed around with students, have not cared about students’ needs, not cared about young people, and think hard to yourself: ‘Is that what I want to happen for myself going forward? For my children? For their children?’
"Look towards opposition parties. While I'm not saying support one opposition party, or two or three, just look into their policies.
"Some might say: 'They're all the same' and 'what's the point of voting?' But if you're not happy with the way things are now, you need to go out and vote, because the government know that young people won't vote so they'll stay in.
"So we need young people to get out, get active and actually vote for who they want."
