The RTB’s index puts the average rent for a new tenancy at €1,839 a month nationally, 9.1% higher than a year earlier. That was a sharp step up after seven quarters in which new-tenancy rents rose by between 4.7% and 5.9% a year. At the same time, one in three people aged 25 to 29 were living in their parents’ home on Census night 2022, up from 24% in 2011.

What’s behind it

Supply. For more than a decade Ireland has built fewer homes than it needs, while the population has grown to 5.5 million. Young adults feel it first because they are the ones trying to enter the market: a new tenancy is priced at today’s rents, while people already renting often pay less. Staying at home longer is, for many, the only way to save a deposit.

The other side

Building is picking up. The CSO counted 36,284 new homes completed in 2025, the most since its series began in 2011 and 20% more than in 2024. The Government’s plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, aims for 300,000 homes by 2030, or about 60,000 a year, so completions would need to climb much further. New rental rules also took effect on 1 March 2026: national rent controls replaced Rent Pressure Zones, increases are capped at 2% or inflation (whichever is lower), and new tenancies get a six-year minimum duration. The RTB noted rents on new tenancies rose sharply as those rules came in, so their effect will take time to read.

What to watch in the Dáil

Housing Budget allocations, planning law, and any changes to the new rent rules. Ask your TDs where they stand and follow how they vote.

A record 17,885 people were in state-funded emergency accommodation in the last week of August 2026, including 5,830 children. About 17% of the adults were aged 18 to 24, and more than two thirds of adults were in Dublin.

What’s behind it

Homelessness is where the housing shortage ends up. When rents climb and few homes come up for rent, the people with the least room to absorb a shock (young adults leaving care, young families, people on low pay) are the first to run out of options.

The other side

The official figure only counts people in emergency accommodation funded by the State. It does not include people sleeping rough, in domestic violence refuges, or staying on friends’ sofas, so the true number is higher. The housing plan includes specific measures on homelessness, and increased building should, over time, ease the pressure. For now the monthly figure is still rising.

In the year to April 2026, 35,400 Irish citizens left the State and 30,200 came home. Across all nationalities, 62,500 people emigrated, and over half of them were Irish citizens. Australia remained a leading destination, with 11,800 people moving there.

What’s behind it

Emigration has always been part of Irish life, and for people in their twenties it is often a choice: to travel, to work abroad, to try somewhere new. What has changed is how often housing costs come up as the reason not to come back.

The other side

This is not the emigration of the 1980s or of 2010. The population is still growing, to 5.526 million, because 110,600 people moved here in the same year. And 30,200 Irish citizens returning is not a small number. The question for policy is less about stopping people leaving and more about whether they can afford to return.

Youth unemployment was 12.3% in August 2026, against 3.9% for people aged 25 to 74. Prices, measured by the EU’s harmonised index, were 3.4% higher than a year earlier. Two categories that matter a lot to young people rose much faster: housing, water, electricity and gas (+8.2%) and education (+9.0%).

What’s behind it

Young people are more likely to be in short-term, part-time or entry-level jobs, which are the first to go when hiring slows. They also spend a larger share of their income on rent and bills, so price rises in those categories hit harder than the headline rate suggests.

The other side

The overall jobs market is strong. More than 2.83 million people were at work at the end of 2025, a record. The youth rate is measured only among people who are looking for work, and many 15 to 24 year olds are in education. Youth unemployment is well above the adult rate across the EU; the concern is the size of the gap and its direction, not that one exists.

Ireland’s emissions fell 2.2% in 2025, the fourth fall in a row, leaving them 14.5% below 2018. The law requires a 51% cut by 2030. The EPA says emissions now need to fall four and a half times faster than they did last year to get there. Transport and industry both exceeded their sectoral ceilings.

Why it’s a youth issue

Today’s 20-year-olds will be 44 in 2050, the year Ireland is legally committed to reaching climate neutrality. Every year the cuts are delayed makes the later ones steeper, and more expensive for the people who will be working and paying tax then.

The other side

Progress is real. Ireland stayed within its first five-year carbon budget (2021 to 2025) by 1.1 million tonnes, and the energy and buildings sectors are within their limits. The gap is in the pace, not the direction.

In a 2026 survey by Walk in My Shoes, the education programme of St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, 94% of secondary school guidance counsellors named anxiety as a mental health difficulty among their students. 61% cited self-harm or suicidal thoughts, 55% low mood and depression, and 39% loneliness and isolation. Counsellors also flagged heavy social media use, eating disorders and disrupted sleep.

How to read it

This is a survey of 55 counsellors, not a national measure of young people’s mental health. It tells you what the people working with students every day are seeing, which is valuable, but it cannot tell you how many students are affected. National data on youth mental health is thinner than for any other issue in this study, which is a finding in itself.

If you’re struggling: Samaritans are free to call on 116 123, any time, and you can text 50808 to talk to a trained volunteer, day or night.

Official turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, the lowest since 1923. The exit poll found housing was the top issue for 42% of voters under 34, well ahead of any other issue in that age group.

The other side

The official figure likely understates turnout. The electoral register still contains people who have moved or died, which inflates the number of eligible voters, and researchers at UCD have estimated the real turnout was higher. Even so, the pattern across elections is consistent: older voters turn out more reliably than younger ones, and politicians notice who votes.