Stemming the brain drain

Is túisce seacláid ná scéal, meaning have a chocolate and let’s chat. The message was written on a Skelligs chocolate bar I purchase in Donnybrook Fair last week. An Irish chocolate business based in County Kerry, you love to see it; the Irish language promoted. While it’s always that bit more expensive, you’d tell yourself you don’t mind paying that bit extra to support local. And you don’t, but where does it stop?

My classmates and I stayed in what we deemed ‘posh Dublin’ for the night. On the way home, each of us agreed it was the most positive experience of the city we’ve ever had. What we’d do to be rich in Dublin, we laughed. We went out for breakfast that morning, I observed each person checking their bank accounts to make sure there was enough money to pay. This was followed by statements like “we deserve it” or ‘“our time left together is limited”. The topic of conversation was the price of alcohol the night before. Each person at the table was working part time while studying.

As students nearing the end of final year, each of us are thinking about what to do after college. A lot of my friends, including myself will move back home and work from there, either part-time or full time if we are lucky enough. If not moving home, then some will head abroad eager to get away for a bit and escape the depression of home. These are the kind of conversations happening at the moment.

If not moving away or starting into a full-time job, there’s a feeling of depression or disappointment, that some are doing better than others. I don’t think it’s a feeling anybody should have when finishing out their degree. It’s estimated that, for a single person living in Ireland, their monthly costs are around €3,221. Ireland is the third most expensive country in Western Europe. Our cost of living is more expensive than 88% of countries in the world. It’s increasingly feeling like everything has a cost.

As young people, we can’t afford to rise above it and the sense of depression and failure that comes with it is starting to become unbearable. Over 20,000 working holiday visas were granted for Irish citizens in Australia in the 12 months ending on June 2023. As a young person, I’m starting to views this less and less as a threat to society and more of an opportunity.

As we got closer to Limerick, the conversation turned towards politics and the upcoming local elections. We discussed different parties, who we were likely to vote for, what councillors do good work in our areas, etc. Naturally, politics has dominated our year with working on the newspaper in Limerick with local, European and directly elected mayoral elections coming up. Although it was the first time the conversation moved to political parties, in reality we’d been discussing politics and thinking politics from the second we woke up that morning. The topic concluded with us laughing about how we lived in one of the richest countries in the world and we wondered where that money was going.

I did a candidate profile with a Social Democrats candidate in Limerick a few months ago. Like most political candidates, I agreed with some of the issues he stood on and disagreed with others. One thing he said stuck in my mind, it was that politics was absolutely everywhere, from what time the bus comes at, to the cost of housing. Once you get into that frame of mind, it’s infuriating. I do believe that everybody has a certain amount of responsibility for everything they do within a society - to work and earn an income but there’s only so much people can do with the means available to them and that’s down to the governments running our country.

There is a feeling of brokenness and people watching what they spend, which is not confined to just students. We were recently reading a book which was set in Celtic Tiger Ireland. The protagonist was driving around in her Lexus, husband working in construction, shopping with ease and spending left right and centre. It was satirical but it did get me thinking that we are a long way off that. I don’t remember the period at all, it felt like reading about foreign lands. My lecturer, a woman in her mid-50s I would say, got a great laugh out of it.

For me personally, among all the chat about improving this that and the other, I would say the most important issues facing Ireland at the minutes are housing, the cost of living and healthcare. It will be interesting to see if successful candidates can make any inroads into addressing these issues.

* Gemma Good is from Killeshandra and a fourth year journalism student in University of Limerick