In the main area of DCU’s Glasnevin campus, students sit on wooden picnic benches eating lunch. They are talking about lectures, assignments and what they did during their week off for Halloween.
But when asked what the biggest issue facing them today is, their answer is almost always the same: housing. It is, they say, the biggest challenge facing their generation. In terms of political priorities for the next government, they say that is the number-one thing they want fixed.
Amber Kane (18), who studies accounting and finance, said she lives with her mother, sister, grandmother and grandfather. She said housing instability is now becoming intergenerational.
“Even then it’s like my mam can’t get a house, and we can’t either. I can’t see in the near future how I’d ever get a house. Obviously we started a college course, we want to have a career and job, but you’re putting all the effort in and you don’t know what you’re going to get back out. That’s really frustrating,” she said.
The accommodation shortage is acutely felt while still studying, too. Many students said they still live at home, because they have no other option, but this has diminished their options to take part in university events.
Nelson Cololo (18) lives in Balbriggan and said it takes him an hour to commute to college on the bus each way. “Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out because after lectures I get home and I’m always tired and by the time I have food and do stuff, it’s already 9pm,” the computer science student said.
Others who are travelling even farther say they have to leave some lectures early in order to make their bus or train home.
“There’s a girl in my course who travels from Monaghan every morning to get in for the 9am lecture,” said Myia Forkin, from Trim in Co Meath. “And you really see it in the evenings, people running out of lectures because their only option for trains is halfway through the lectures.”
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This, according to Adam Mee (22), is not just an accommodation issue, but also a public transport one. He is from a rural housing estate in Co Roscommon.
“If you don’t have money and don’t have a car, it’s not a great country to be in as a young person. Public transport is very lacking. It’s underfunded and not reliable at all. You can’t even tap your card on it, you have to get a Leap card,” he added.
During the 2020 general election, Sinn Féin experienced a surge in popularity, particularly among students and other people in their 20s or early 30s. But speaking to students, it appeared that popularity has waned.
“Personally, I don’t really like Sinn Féin because of the history,” said Muireann Ní Dhúghaill, a 19-year-old accounting and finance student from Portrane, Dublin.
“I think young people were just kind of sick of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael so they decided to try this, even though they didn’t really understand some of the historical aspects which older generations would have seen. But now I think they understand it a little bit more, so I think it could be different this time around.”
But that doesn’t mean students are happy with the status quo either, she said. “We definitely need some fresher faces,” Ní Dhúghaill adds. “I think it’s hard for them [politicians] to understand young people now because they’re not living in our time. They can say they know housing is an issue, but they have a house, they have a full time job; they’re stable.”
This is something 19-year-old Adam Ryan agrees with. He is frustrated with how politicians and older members of the public do not recognise what he believes are unique challenges facing this generation.
“Older generations don’t always see the issues. Let’s say, for example, the minimum wage is going up again, and they compare that to what they got, but they don’t take into consideration that the cost of everything has gone up more than how much the minimum wage has gone up by. It’s not relative to the cost,” he added.
Another very obvious trend among a significant proportion of those on campus was a lack of interest about the forthcoming election. “Jesus, there’s going to be an election? I had no idea,” one student whispered to her friend. Another said: “I literally know nothing about politics or the election. I know that’s bad.”
Alexander Zudin, an 18-year-old computer science student from Swords, Co Dublin, isn’t sure if he will vote and expresses a distrust in the political system. He didn’t know there would be an election in the near future, and has no thoughts about any of the political parties or the performance of the current Government.
“I don’t really get into politics. You never know the truth behind stuff so I never get deep into it,” he said. “Something can be shown on the news one way but in reality it’s quite different. I can’t trust what I see.”
