The challenges that face Ireland and does your future lie here?

Ireland as a nation has many obstacles to overcome, financially, socially and constitutionally. We are a great nation that unfortunately is smothered in financial debt, is being challenged on moral views and face a new set of problems for a new generation. All of these combined forms a very good excuse for emigration, as it seems we are not as great a nation as we once were known to be.

Firstly, a looming debt crisis has crippled our country into recession, with lack of employment, cuts to welfare and increased taxes. The Budget for 2013 has hit families hard. The new Property tax, cuts to child benefit and changes to social insurance like the State maternity benefits are definitely not helping those with squeezed incomes. Families with offspring starting third level will now be forced to pay 250 euro extra in registration fees, bringing the total now to three thousand euro!  Altogether, the average household will end up paying an extra one thousand euro a year! Tell me, is it really just for a government, who gave so much to bankers, to take away so much from the ordinary, hardworking taxpayer? Pensioners will suffer from reductions to Household Benefits Package that helps with electricity, gas and telephone bills; while 20,000 over  70s will lose  medical cards to have them replaced with GP-only cards.  And as far as the phrase “creating jobs” goes, the national unemployment rate is still sky high at 15.1%, one of the highest in Europe.

Apart from financial problems in Ireland, social problems are on the rise, with an increase in cyber-bullying amongst teenagers. There is not enough being done in schools to tackle this issue, as there have been more deaths as a result of suicide each year in Ireland than in road traffic accidents, and the World Health Organisation has also found that youth suicide rates in Ireland are the fifth highest in the European Union; whilst a separate report published by the Irish Medical Journal has revealed that there has been a 16 per cent increase over  a 20 year period in the rate of suicide in Irish teens under the age of 17. Yes, that’s right - Children as young as twelve years of age have felt that they couldn’t go on living any longer, and all due to a few cowardly individuals who spam abuse from behind the safety of their computer screens. But what I find truly extraordinary is that teenagers can practically set themselves up for this abuse from these ‘internet trolls’ through websites like ask.fm. I mean, using a website that allows people to leave hurtful comments ANONYMOUSLY about you is just asking for trouble. At least on sites like Facebook and Twitter you know who’s saying what, so bullying can be brought to a halt. But on ask.fm you can say anything to anyone without consequence, without the risk of being found out.  This ridiculous excuse for social media should be shut down as soon as possible, along with all other anonymous question-asking sites.

Now we come to the issue of our national legislation. The recent tragic death of a young mother-to-be was contributed to by the failure by our elected public representatives to clarify the legal situation regarding termination of pregnancy. The late Savita Halappavanar was unable to have a termination of her miscarrying pregnancy because a foetal heartbeat was present.  A few days later she died of blood infection. Now I know for a fact that in 1992 Ireland’s Supreme Court stated that abortion was permissible in the case of a “real and substantive risk” to the mother’s life. Yet our politicians, who we have so much to thank for, have tiptoed around the issue of abortion for so long that Irish law still lacks the legislation to give medical practitioners clear guidelines on the matter. Even the European Court of Justice has called on the Irish Government to clarify matters.  Now that someone has died the government has become startled, and only now say something will have to be done.

From hearing all this you should now see why our country is decaying more and more, how bankers who stole millions are safe at home, how our children can now find it impossible to escape bullying and how a decrepit law system from a bygone era still rules over our lives. Sadly, I couldn’t think of a better time than now to emigrate.

Mark Garvey Transition Year-Essay for Seanad Challenge