Burden of austerity falls on the young

The pain of more fees and the dole queue is not what young people expected from the money the Government had in the ‘boom’, writes Róisín Healy

WHEN I was in secondary school my teachers and family assured me I was lucky to be heading to college and not into the jobs market. That was two years ago, and now with almost half of my degree under my belt, my luck has apparently run out. Remaining in college will bleed me dry financially if the Government has its way. What are my alternatives? Joining a dole queue or scraping together the money for a one-way ticket to God-knows-where.

I have my whole life ahead of me and, of course, I have plans, dreams and ambitions. My course of study has verified for me that I want to be a journalist, hopefully for a national newspaper but I’m willing to work my way up.