Growing up in Ireland: Home truths for today's twenty-somethings

Latest survey finds that 25-year-olds remain optimistic despite housing and mental health concerns, but are politically disengaged

Patrick McGrath: 'The price of renting or trying to buy a house is not feasible.' Picture: Dan Linehan

Age 25 in Ireland — chances are you’re living at home and that owning a place of your own is a distant dream, but you’re working hard to make it a reality.

The latest Growing Up in Ireland survey paints a detailed picture of the lives of 25-year-olds from the central survey themes of physical health, wellbeing and key relationships, education, civic participation, and economic participation.

The highlights include:

• Only 3.8% of respondents owned their own home, however some 80% said they expected to buy a home in the future;
• Almost the entire group of respondents (97.7%) said they were concerned about the housing situation;
• More than three in 10 women (31.5%) said they had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety at some point in their lives. Women without a higher education self-reported more negative outcomes;
• When it comes to alcohol, almost four in 10 engaged in what the World Health Organization (WHO) considers to be hazardous drinking, with higher figures among men, especially men with higher education;
• A majority (51.3%) stated that they did not smoke or vape;
• More than one in five in the group (21.4%) said they had tried cocaine at least once in the past year;
• Nearly one in five (19.9%) expressed zero interest in politics;
• Two thirds of respondents reported that they had experiences of discrimination at least a few times a year but on the other hand, a majority stated that they were optimistic about the future.

With most of the people in Cohort ’98 stated they were satisfied with their lives, Cianan Brennan met four 20-somethings to see what is on their minds.

Denise Harding, 27

Denise is a radio presenter and content creator with Tipperary Mid West Radio.

She lives at home with her parents near Thurles because it works for her financially, and the 27-year-old cannot see herself ever owning her own home.

“I can’t see myself ever buying one [a house] really. I would be concerned about [the current housing market],” she says.

“For my age group, it’s renting that we do, and even at that it’s quite difficult to do.”

Does she feel optimistic about the situation changing?

“I hope that the current Government can put things in place so we can rent, or get a place of our own, but we’ll have to see what their policies are and where it goes,” she says.

In terms of politics, Denise is “definitely interested”, as political engagement goes hand-in-hand with her work with the National Youth Council of Ireland, which sees her engaging with politicians as a matter of course.

“I was always interested in what’s going on in our country,” she says. “But I can understand political apathy. I have friends who are just disappointed in the Government, and who can’t see any point in voting.”

She understands the move to the right being seen in democracies across the globe, notably in America with the second coming of Donald Trump.

“Some people just think that one party hasn’t worked for them, and they want to see what the other can do,” she says. “They think he can be a change for them. We’ll have to see how that pans out. I wouldn’t have voted for him personally, but who knows, maybe he can create positive change.”

'I can understand political apathy,' says Denise Harding.

Denise also understands why so many people of her age group have emigrated, though it is not something she wishes to do.

“There are just better opportunities abroad, especially with my friends who are nurses,” she says. “They don’t see that career happening in Ireland when there’s better money elsewhere. But for me, I have a job, the housing issue isn’t great at the moment, but I want to see where my career can go in Ireland before going elsewhere.”

Despite the challenges, she’s optimist about the future.

“It’s better to be optimistic than to be not so. A positive attitude goes a long way. You’d be hoping that something can change for the better along the way.”

In terms of her generation’s attitude to drugs and alcohol, the trend Denise has noticed most is that “while a lot of people are opting for drugs more than alcohol, a lot of others are opting for a more sober lifestyle”.

“They want to be healthier. But in terms of drugs, and I don’t do it myself, but I think people are opting for them because they get a better buzz. It’s a longer effect at a cheaper price, and that’s why they’re choosing it.”

Mairead Sheehy, 25

One of  the more noteworthy aspects of the CSO’s latest Growing Up in Ireland check-in with its cohort of 25-year-olds is the apparent contradictions inherent in its findings.

They are “very concerned” about housing issues, but are very disengaged politically. Their mental health is in crisis, but they’re also optimistic for the future.

Mairead, a 25-year-old journalist with the Irish Examiner, is definitely more aligned with the optimistic view of things.

In terms of housing, she is “concerned, but not very concerned”.

Currently living at home in Listowel in order to save money for travel, she concedes that when she lived in Cork she had been “very lucky, in that it was cheap and I was living with friends”.

“I put it to the back of my mind; I wouldn’t let it get to me,” she says of the country’s housing crisis.

Of the study’s finding that one in eight of 25-year-olds have emigrated, Mairead says she is “surprised the figure isn’t higher”.

One of her sisters has already emigrated.

“It’s something I would contemplate doing,” she says. “Certainly from my secondary school, it’s way higher than one in eight that have emigrated, especially now we’re 25. There’s a different leaving party every month.

“I would want to come back though, not necessarily to Kerry, but Ireland is definitely home. I just hope that something changes.

“I want to raise my children in Ireland.

“I’d like to believe that things can change, otherwise you’d get in an awful hole. There were issues with housing before and they cleared themselves up.” 

Economic bubbles tend to have to burst before things can recover, Mairead concedes.

In terms of political engagement, Mairead says she considers herself “mediocre”.

Mairead Sheehy says she is more politically engaged than her friends, who 'seem to have no interest, even in voting'. Picture: David Creedon

“I’m interested, given the nature of my job, and I would research
before voting, but that is definitely more engaged than my wider cohort of friends, who seem to have no interest, even in voting.”

The CSO study found that more than one in five respondents had tried cocaine in the past year, a fact that Mairead did not find surprising.

“It has definitely evolved from when we were 20. Drugs are all very casual now, especially on a night out. Maybe it’s to do with disposable income,” she says.

Class A drugs are a big issue in Ireland, without any real thought for the consequences, people’s financial and mental health. It’s become so normalised.

In terms of mental health, the CSO found declining standards in how 25-year-olds consider their mental wellbeing. Mairead says
social media “has a lot to answer for” from that point of view.

“It’s definitely not a surprise that things are worse,” she says.

“People are always comparing themselves to others, and body image has a lot to do with that.

“There’s also social anxiety, which I don’t think my parents had even heard of.

“You think you should always be doing something, there’s the fear of falling behind, but also, people are now a lot more open about their mental health, even more blasé if they’re taking medication, say. It’s a generational thing.”

Nathan Murphy, 24

Nathan has spent much of his life thinking about politics.

He studied it for three years at DCU, and it’s to the forefront of his mind in his graduate role as the Union of Students in Ireland’s vice president in charge of campaigns.

Housing is the 24-year-old’s other main preoccupation. He finds it hard to be optimistic.

“We’ve had the same Government, involving the same two parties, really as far back as 2016 with confidence and supply,” he says. “They said they were going to build 40,000 houses a year, and then post-election it comes out that they only built 33,000 last year.

“If they can’t reach 40,000 then how are they going to build 10 times that in five years’ time, as they’ve committed to doing? It’s the same reason why my generation isn’t more engaged politically. They see the same Government, or what they perceive as the same Government, every time, so they aren’t bothered.

“But look at Holly Cairns [Social Democrats leader], when she ran for council in Cork [in 2019]. She won by one vote. That’s the difference people can make. Every vote counts.”

Nathan Murphy says young people can make a difference in politics and 'every vote counts'.

While currently living at home, Nathan’s situation is a little different in that he lives in a log cabin at the bottom of his parents’ garden.

“I’ve my own space at the back, and really I couldn’t afford to pay rent in Dublin. It’s a luxury to have a space of my own. I know others who are stuck in the box room or paying an arm and a leg in rent.

“But it [the cabin] has a limited lifespan. And I’d have concerns about being able to move out, just with the state of the economy and the price of apartments.

“There are so many stringent issues. I can’t go back to education because I no longer qualify for a grant because I’m seen as a dependent where I live. So I’m not able to upskill because I can’t afford to do a masters.”

And he sees house prices only going one way.

“I can’t be optimistic. I’ve been in politics for six years, as a student and in the SU, but looking at housing over the past five years, the number of houses being built, and what’s considered to be affordable, it’s hard to look on the bright side.

If €400,000 or €500,000 is what’s considered affordable right now in Dublin, it might be €700,000 in five years. No one can afford this. 

"We’d need to see real change in what the country is doing, and looking at the new programme for government, it’s clear that change wasn’t on the agenda this time.”

Not that Nathan would emigrate.

“I’ve looked at it. I’d say 90% of my friends have looked at it. But I call Ireland my home. The reason I got into student politics was to help people. I’d like to have a future here made of helping people and advocacy, so that eventually the housing crisis stops being a crisis.”

Patrick McGrath, 22

As a student of agricultural engineering in Tralee, three years into a four-year degree, Cork man Patrick doesn’t have housing immediately on his mind. But it’s on the periphery.

“I do often think about it,” he says. “Like, if I were to get a job in Ireland, and move out of home, the price of renting or trying to buy a house is just not feasible, especially for postgrads.”

The housing crisis is so bad that affording a place to buy is even out of the reach of two people banding together at this stage.

“You’d need to get even more people together. But I’m just concerned rather than very concerned about it at this stage. It’s still a few years off til it directly affects me.”

He admits there is no easy fix.

“Supply has to go up, but there has to be a better balance between private and public. At the moment it’s far too heavily skewed towards the private. There should definitely be a higher dormant property tax, and taxes on people who own more than one residential property.”

The trend of vulture funds buying up whole housing estates is also one he has no time for: “That should not be a thing. When you’re buying property, you should buy one only, and that should be it.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Patrick considers himself an optimist about the future in that “there’s no point in thinking otherwise; it does no good for anyone”.

Politically, he is more engaged than the average 25-year-old.

“I’d be quite interested and I follow what’s going on,” he says. “Definitely I’d vote.”

In terms of mental health issues, he thinks social media is to blame, rather than the various headwinds the country is facing. “It’s a big, big problem, with people setting impossible standards for others to reach, and when people don’t reach that, they think that they’re the problem and it brings them down.

“But that could be a college thing, which is prime time to be posting everything that you do. It’s when you graduate, and you don’t know where to live, or how to afford car insurance, your rent — that’s when all that other stuff comes into play.”

For Patrick, alcohol is still the dominant vice for his generation, but he thinks the normalisation of casual drug use has become “overwhelming”.

Every single pub you go into, you’ll be guaranteed someone will have a bag of coke or a bag of something, and in the bathroom someone will be taking something. 

"It’s just so accepted by everyone that people have stopped even pretending they’re not doing it. I don’t think it’s OK. It’s at college that it starts. And the sheer cost of a night on drugs, it’s so much more expensive, and that leads to other problems.”

For the immediate future, Patrick is hoping to travel for a couple of years after he graduates, with the US, Canada, and New Zealand top of his list.