Six Facts That Shame Our Future

We making history — the wrong kind.

It took a man wearing plastic bag on his head on Ireland’s biggest television institution to hit the nail on the head.

Blind Boy from The Rubberbandits told Late Late Show viewers of the desperate hopelessness that is writ large through a generation of our country like a stick of rock.

Young people feel their only way out is to ‘jump on a plane or jump in the river’.

Think about that.

We have made history for this current generation (Gen Y or Millenials, if you’re in marketing and trying to flog to them) by making them the first that is likely to be POORER than their parents.

Just blind blather?

Not according to these statistics carried in the Independent

19.7%

the unemployment rate for people under 25 — the national rate is 9.7pc. The EU youth employment rate is around 10pc

44%

the number of JobBridge interns who believed that the national internship programme was used for “free labour”, according to a survey last year

€9.15

the new national minimum wage which came into effect on January 1 — but still a long way off the €11.50 that’s deemed by many to be a just living wage

€100

the rate of Jobseeker’s benefit for those under 25 (with no children). Up until 2014, people aged 21 to 24 received €144

308,100

the number of people aged 20 to 34 who emigrated between 2008 and 2013, roughly two thirds of the total who left

205,000.

fewer twenty-somethings living in Ireland today than in 2009, according to data published last year.

Given this, is it really surprising that hopelessness is the default setting for so many of our next generation?

The Phoney War for General Election 2016 is almost over and the Social Democrats want to reclaim that future for that generation with a stable economy, a fairer and open government and dignity for all our Citizens.

And this is not just rhetoric. We have costed plans and a vision for how our State can future-proof the way we want to live.

Let’s make history — for the right reasons