There is an Irish podcast run by three self-described middle-aged women who talk about life at their age and their current struggles. I will admit, as a 29-year-old, I have little interest in listening to the podcast as our life stages and socio-economic statuses do not currently align (both being substantially less than theirs). However, a friend sent me a clip of one of their recent recordings where they called young people “assholes” (pardon the language, but the term will be repeated a few more times).
Why are young people assholes, you may be asking? Because they are “entitled”, living at home, and are “bloodsuckers” and “leeches” to mammy and daddy. These women go on to claim that young people are not saving any money because they are getting their hair and nails done; living “the high life” while their parents foot the bill for everything else. The hosts believe that young people do this because the world has told them that they will be living with mammy and daddy forever, and therefore, young people have lost all ambition to move out. Is it rage-bait? Maybe. But the comments sure agree with it (think “well said!” and “spot on!!”).
In university, my friends and I had a joke that while living at home, you may not be paying rent, but you are paying with your sanity. When one of my friends was made redundant, her and her partner moved into his family home because they could not afford rent on his (well-paying) salary alone. One struggle they have had is that his parents have reverted into treating them like teenagers, despite the fact they are 30 years old and have, not only offered, but asked to pay rent so as not be seen as an asshole. My friends are desperately trying to buy a house and start a family of their own, but the market is asking for €400,000+ for a two-bed apartment outside of the M50. This, of course, does not stop them from being labelled as an asshole by people who clearly have not had to deal with the housing market in quite some time.
When another friend of mine was purchasing her home with her fiancé, their mortgage broker automatically asked what the gift amount from their parents would be. Confused, they asked for clarification, to which the broker apologised and explained most couples receive a monetary gift to put towards a deposit. This intergenerational transfer of wealth to some children from their parents—who by dint of timing and good fortune were able to accrue affordable housing—has become so ordinary and custom that it is routinely apart of the mortgage questionnaire now, seemingly because, well, how else is someone meant to buy a home in Dublin? But this represents neither sound housing policy or the hallmarks of a just society.
Part of the seductive myth present amongst a certain class of Irish homeowners is that they had it more difficult than our/my generation. This is against the backdrop that, across Europe, the average percentage of 18-to-34-year-olds living at home as a direct result of their economic status was 36.7% in 2025. Ireland recorded 43.3%, making it the 10th highest country out of 29 countries reported, and being only one of two in Western Europe in the top 10. Not to say that older generations did not have their own struggles, but considering the average national price to buy a home in the 1990s was €88,000 (adjusted to current currency and inflation) compared to €375,000 in 2025, there is a staggering difference in the achievability of homeownership.
I am sure you read those stories and thought “yeah, I know people in the same boat”, or even “I am in that same boat”. It isn’t that the world has told us young people that we will live with mammy and daddy forever and to accept it—it is the market telling us that; it is the Government telling us that [1]. Because while they may be praising themselves for building more homes, they—the government and the market—are forgetting a crucial piece to this puzzle: can people afford what we are building? Simply put, no, we cannot. The market does not care because they are heavily subsidised by the government through tax breaks and reliefs, and yet are still seeking more. If they sell even a fraction of the units they created, they will have made a profit. The government should care but clearly don’t, otherwise meaningful steps would have been taken to tackle the affordability crisis.
So, please forgive us young people if getting our hair or nails done every now and then to feel a little human makes us an asshole. But this punching down or “brutal honesty” by comfortable homeowners on podcasts and legacy media has become a national pastime, reflecting a further erosion of solidarity in Irish society. Plentiful and affordable housing for younger generations, as they seek to start their lives separate from parents, is an expression of generational solidarity and housing justice.
We don’t mean to leech off of our parents, and we haven’t lost the ambition to move out—trust us, we don’t want to be living with you either. But until either salaries start matching the rate of inflation and price increases or costs start coming down (preferably both!), our options are very limited, and living at home is the best of a bad lot of choices.
Verdict?
So, readers, time to ask yourself: AITA for being too poor to leave my parents’ house? Or am I just a victim of a Government more concerned with assisting reckless profiteering from a social good?
[1] While scrubbed from the internet on all official pages and channels, the Housing Agency and SpunOut put out an informational commercial in December 2025 on ways to adjust to moving back in with your parents as an adult, suggesting setting up house rules and communicating better, amongst other tone-deaf ideas, will help with the transition.
