Fianna Fáil has a youth problem. Repeated opinion polls demonstrate that the party’s support is heavily concentrated among older voters, while among young people support for Fianna Fáil is just a fraction of Sinn Féin’s.
The most recent Irish Times/Ipsos poll in June showed that among the youngest voters, those aged 18-24, support for Fianna Fáil was at just 15 per cent; among the next group, those aged 25-34, Fianna Fáil support was even lower, at just 12 per cent. Among those aged 65 and over, by contrast, Fianna Fáil support was at 37 per cent.
Like much of the dominant dynamic of Irish politics at present, housing is a central part of this. Many young people feel shut out of the property market, and despair of ever affording their own home. Party chiefs insist progress is being made – they cite the First Home scheme and the Help to Buy scheme – but they know it’s not quick enough, not yet anyway, to be palpable to enough. They hope that all this chipping away at the problem will have some impact by the time of the next election. But they do not predict it will with any great confidence.
“For Fianna Fáil,” says the Dáil’s youngest TD, James O’Connor, elected at the age of just 22 at the last election, “it’s our biggest problem.”
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He acknowledges both the party’s difficulty with younger voters and the urgency of tackling the housing crisis if the party is to win back support. He also knows that the coming Budget may be the last before an election and hopes to see more help for those trying to buy their first home.
“I’d like to see more focus in the area of home ownership,” O’Connor says. “More mortgage qualification is a huge issue in urban areas and unfortunately it’s spreading to more rural constituencies.”
Long-term renters, he says, are getting a very unfair deal on two fronts – high rents mean they are struggling to save a deposit but they are not getting credit from banks for a proven ability to pay over years.
Officially, the party trumpets an “unwavering commitment to the wellbeing and future of young people ... evident in a multitude of initiatives aimed at enhancing their lives”. It cites free contraception for all women under 30 – what would the FFers of old have made of it? – and the recent move to extend free GP care to another 200,000 people.
Junior minister Mary Butler told the think-in about the establishment of a National Office for Youth Mental Health, a vital issue for many in their teens and 20s and something of a personal crusade for Butler.
Party officials cite the renters’ tax credit, student supports and the reduction on public transport fares for young people – not necessarily Fianna Fáil initiatives, but ideas the party is damn sure going to seek credit for anyway. In fairness, so will its Coalition partners.
[ Younger people lose out in generation game of Irish housing marketOpens in new window ]
But it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Fianna Fáil’s cut-through with young people depends much more on tangible progress on housing than anything else. Holding the housing portfolio, it will be judged on results; so it’s in a race against time.
What are the parties doing for the under-35s?
