Apparently the country’s population will swell by at least a million within 17 years, mostly from immigration.
Still, I don’t remember anyone asking the public if they want another million people in the country when the State can’t provide for those already here.
But that’s the way it is in this Government where ministers boast the country is booming with full unemployment as families struggle just to meet household bills, while 10,400 people have no homes to go to.
This week it was revealed Ireland is the most expensive country out of 28 nations in the EU to run a house... as if you didn’t know.
Every family in the country is only too well aware they are being fleeced when it comes to buying gas and electricity, while heaven help those who have to pay rent because the Government certainly won’t.
At least you know you’re not imagining your wallets and purses are empty at the end of the month because an official EU survey shows the cost of running a home here is 57% higher than the European average.
The study came at the same time our Central Statistics Office released figures showing Ireland’s population is set to rise to 5.81 million by 2037, compared to the 4.7 million now.
All these stats also came in the week that a garden shed with a bed shoved into it was being offered for rent for €1,400 a month.
Sorry to burden you with this mountain of misery but I’ve had it with the “you’ve never had it so good brigade” who would like the world to think that Ireland is booming just because they’ve never had it so good.
But don’t just take my word for it because according to the body which represents the country’s engineers the situation is getting worse and not better, especially when it comes to accommodation.
Engineers Ireland maintain there are 600,000 people living in shoddy housing with leaks, damp or rot making their lives a misery.
Over half of the 52% of professional engineers surveyed believe the country’s overall infrastructure is not in good shape and doesn’t have the capacity for future development.
In their publication The State Of Ireland 2019 it gave the housing sector a D grade.
Engineers Ireland head Caroline Spillane said: “We, like many others, are seriously concerned about Ireland’s housing.
“Immediate actions are needed to overcome challenges in the capacity, condition and connectivity of our housing stock.”
So how the hell is the country going to house a million extra people in the coming years when the numbers in emergency accommodation keep rising every month.
The fact Fine Gael ministers would rather eat dog poo than build what we once called council houses is the root cause of the homelessness and housing crisis.
So too is Fine Gael’s Thatcherite-type reliance on the market to provide housing for families.
In April the United Nations described the Irish housing sector as “investor-centric”, meaning that private housing investment has made homes almost unaffordable for most people.
UN rapporteur Leilani Farha hit the nail on the head when she said the situation is worse because the Irish Government is aiding and abetting these vulture funds with “preferential tax laws and weak tenant protections among other measures”.
In short the situation we’re in did not happen by accident, it was brought about by design.
While the Government has all sorts of plans for the future up and until 2040, it is less clear where Fine Gael is taking us as a society.
In their eight years in office the lot of ordinary people, even those on relatively good incomes, has not improved.
In recent days we’ve seen how 10,000 health workers have had to go on strike for a pay rise they were due, while judges received a huge salary hike without having to ask.
Time and time again the party of privilege has protected the wealthy while literally throwing ordinary folk to the vultures.
The question ordinary workers should ask is if things are so bad in what are supposedly the good times, what will happen to their wages and their standard of living if, as anticipated, there is a downturn in the wake of a hard Brexit?
