Sick of this country

The oul "Grass isn't greener on the other side" argument - recently promoted by "Leo". The FF/FGers are truly out in force tonight on this thread. I expect nothing less on this website.

Tell me, how does the MNC's wealth only benefit the older generation? How does their money not benefit the young? I'd go so far as to say that the young benefit more as the MNC's wealth wasn't really there when the older generation were coming up.

Also, please explain to me how someone retiring early is keeping your wages low and how are those low wages proping up their pensions?

Yes, the challenges are different today but so what. Do you think the older generation didn't have any challenges?

Apart from housing, most other things are easier for young people than they were 30 or 40 years ago.

Calling everyone in the HSE a d1ckhead tells me everything I need to know about you.

You sound very bitter.

Hey, Hey, Hey.

Get ta fcuk outta here with your facts. They aren't wanted here.

There are more professions in Ireland than teachers.

You still haven't mentioned where you'd emigrate to.

It's obvious that if someone has a different opinion to you, they are FF/FG boogeymen.

Of course. Personally the UAE looks the best country to emigrate to but it's a personal decision. I'm posting on teachers because my original quote was on that job. I'm well aware of the fact that we are short thousands of nurses and doctors in underfunded Irish hospitals (many of them gone also). But I also acknowledge that for some there's never been a recession in Ireland in their lifetimes.

Doesn't quite fit the narrative some posters on here want to read though. Sad part of your experience living in Germany is that all of those measures could be implemented here. . . but they're not. And the reason for that is corruption weaves its way through the landowning, political and banking classes in Ireland like a hot knife going through butter.

The English always mocked the Irish before independence saying "the Irish are incapable of governing themselves".

Sadly they were right.

Brexit Britain is a ghastly place, for sure. We're in the same neo-liberalist capitaism-on-steroids boat though. Very similar. We basically copy everything they do whilst try and look "independent" by being the first in the world at something - like labels on alcohol products to take a recent example. I want Ireland to be a Germany, a Norway, a France - a social democratic country where the citizen matters, public services are invested in, pensions are protected. . . . and not the kip it is now where we dump our own citizens on the streets because landlord politicians could it creaming it more than they were.

That's true. I have no problem with high taxes even if 50% after €40,000 is nuts. (As an aside I remember when it was 50% after €32000 in 2011).

But they get what they pay for in Germany and elsewhere with their taxes. As a citizen in Germany once told me "Everything just works" in Germany.......which is ironically the reason they can take in one million Syrians overnight. The public infrastructure is there. Paid for by the taxpayer in Germany.

Unfortunately we cannot say the same for Ireland. We had a running tram system in Dublin back in the day - ripped it up. We have the worst funded schools among OECD countries. Public transport is a mess in Dublin and basically doesn't exist in rural Ireland. Pension age increasing to 68, 69 as we boast of how rich we are. Emigration is on the rise among skilled workers as we sit back and allow it to decimate our public services. Homelessness increasing with entire families facing 1880s style evictions. Price of property among the highest in the world, Rents sky high. Petrol & Car Tax - huge relative to other countries. VAT rate amongst the highest in the EU. . . . . But hey we are so incredibly successful.

"Ireland spends less than 36 other developed countries on its education system, when spending is measured as a portion of countries’ gross domestic product (GDP), according to a new report from the OECD."

Honestly take a look in some Irish schools - Same as the 1970s/80s with the latest software on the computers being Windows95.

Where did the young people live during all this, in fields?

Who will ultimately benefit from that asset?

What about people who were lucky with their timing and bought houses at fractions after the bust, do we forcibly evict them too? I mean euro for euro they are far better off than most.

Where do you draw the line on this communist land grab plan of yours?

And know how!

If the 00's are anything to go by, Paddy hasn't a clue how to build quality housing that's sustainable and is sound in terms of infra design.

Swords is seeing an incredible amount of housing being built. There's the Swords Express and a couple of Dublin Bus routes to service 50,000 people. It's just not enough.

Swords is supposed to be getting the metro but that has always been a pipe dream. I work there now sometimes and cycle out, it's just a straight road from town. There are plans for Bus Connects with bike lanes going all the way out to Swords from town but I can't see it being finished in the 2020s. We really need some kind of emergency measures to get infrastructure projects underway because nothing is getting done, I was reading yesterday that residents in Templeogue or Terenure are going to try and bring a case all the way to the European courts of Justice because they're losing a few car parking spaces over bus connects. Just unbelievable.

I have a load of empathy with people trying to pay rent / buy a house, especially in urban areas.

It is genuinely much harder than in the past.

People don't like to say it but immigration, generally legal immigration has caused massive problems here. Schools are full, there aren't enough houses, hospitals can't cope with the population, it's very hard to get anyone to do repairs on your house. In short our population has gone up way too much without the resources we needed to provide for more people.

Schools are not full, we are undersubscribed. It's the reason we were able to integrate 15,000 Ukrainian children. There is pressure points in certain areas but that is bad planning more than anything else.

It's immigrants that build our houses and work in our health systems, without them we would be in complete dire straights.

The reality is we are going to need a lot more of them going forward if we want to achieve our capital construction plans.

I lived in Australia years ago, it was nice enough, just not home so we came back.

So you were an immigrant yourself?

'So you were an immigrant yourself?'

Effectively sounds like he was a guest worker since he went, worked and came back.

Plenty of East Europeans working here with no intention of staying on and the same was true in 2002-7.

If you're into cycling that's great. If you're not, its terrible. 30km/2 hour cycle per day... it's not for most people. In fact I'd argue it's for very few.

Metro's original concept should have been completed by now. (I've b*tched and moaned enough about it in this site 😅) I don't think it'll happen.

It think it depends on where you live. Some of the Schools close to me are quite empty because the area has matured. The schools where my son lives are absolutely jammed. 35 kids in a class job, with two classes! depends on where you are.

Two young kids one in school one in playschool, fuel for the family car, i think there is finance on the family car too and whatever other expenses come into the house as well. His OH started back working a few days a week this year which will help things along too but hes not gonna be rolling in it either.

I sent my kids to single sex schools and glad I did. Compared to those shoveled into the local comprehensive. There should be choice rather than the coercion u advocate. Same for religious schools which I attended. Pupils used to travel miles by bus to attend it so much so that I, as I kid, naively thought there were no schools in the "countryside" outside Dublin. Decades later this is still the case for that very same school and for the girls only convent school nearby. Parents get to choose not bureaucrats. I saw the very same pattern of behaviour in Australia when I lived there. The neighbourhood state school was a dud and I had to act to forestall problems.