The Recession - A Young Persons Perspective
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The Recession – A Young Persons Perspective
A nervous silence hung over the characterless conference room. It was unsure whether it was regret, sadness or nerves themselves. The silence in the room mirrored the tortuous quietness of business in recent years. Liquidation was necessary. Nobody arrived to the Creditor’s meeting. He was an upstanding individual who respected clients, suppliers and staff. Unfortunate…
Like countless other small and medium businesses around the country, this is an unfortunate reality. The lifeblood of our economy has suddenly gone sour. It was not until last week that I realised this; impersonal statistics and reports in newspapers really can’t match up to the terrible loss of livelihoods. This man produced high quality bespoke furnishings, but was hampered by the banks and revenue commissioners. I suppose it isn’t true to say then, “if you make with quality, you will always be successful.”
The common response to people who have fallen on hard times is to “educate oneself” or to “go back to college”. Many of these people already possess a bachelor’s degree, and what if they have a family to support? To be quite honest, it leaves me speechless. Nothing is being done to help these countless individuals and their businesses.
The problem with this common response is that the third level education system in Ireland is deteriorating. Lack of funds, and lack of interest from the government are leaving our national universities with sub-standard equipment. Some secondary school laboratories have more modern apparatus than University equivalents. In my opinion, fees will have to be re-introduced if we want to get Ireland back on it’s feet. This would provide our students with properly accredited degrees, encouraging investment in our country.
The issue with the re-introduction of University fees is that people envisage that they cannot afford them. This would be true if the government did not provide any student financing. In the UK, students can receive full tuition fee loans for the duration of their degree. They are not required to re-pay these loans until they are earning a certain amount of money, long after they have finished their education. This would allow everyone who previously applied to University to still attend, in turn providing the country with a high quality education system.
It cannot be denied that we already have a high-quality workforce. The problem is that it needs to be re-mobilised. Almost 14% are unemployed. These people need to be involved again in the working world. The government needs to get them off unemployment benefit and provide them with some sort of livelihood. The construction industry has undoubtedly been the worst hit. Perhaps these unemployed workers from the construction industry could be provided with some sort of allowance (above the weekly unemployment payment) to improve services in our community, by building roads? This way, we would be receiving something instead of having hard-working individuals sitting on the couch at home…
The un-rewarding lifestyle of an unemployed individual is not a confidence-builder. Sitting at home alone, with little contact from the outside world plunges people into despair. We need to be active and be involved in the community. Unemployment offers nothing to an enthusiastic individual. Is this what we want for the people of our country?
I believe that the government need to involve themselves in the reality of this economic recession, instead of focussing solely on the banks. This will lift the nervous eerie silence from that conference room, and perhaps the country.
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