For years now workers have been told by right-wing politicians and economists that we need to tighten our belts whilst waxing lyrically about “green shoots of recovery”.
A series of articles that have been carried in the mainstream media recently have exposed the human face of the growing housing crisis in Dublin and other urban centres across the state.
Almost one in four young people in the European Union are currently unemployed. In Greece this figure hits 57%, in Spain 56%, in Ireland it is 29%. In total 5.5 million young people are unemployed across Europe and emigration is rife, with people leaving Ireland in numbers not seen since the Famine. In the face of this crisis the European Union has no solution to offer, its latest proposal a ‘Youth Guarantee’ is nothing more than wishful thinking.