Unless you’ve been living under a rent-controlled rock you will of course be aware Ireland is in the grip of a frightening cost-of-living crisis. Broke (RTÉ One, Monday) doesn’t pretend to have the answers to what may be the biggest economic calamity to hit the country since the great recession left us at the mercy of the IMF.
Instead, it casts an unflinching gaze at ordinary Irish families as they struggle to make ends meet at a time when simply existing can feel like a chore.
This is not an uplifting watch. In Dublin, we meet Aoife Guilfoyle and Andrew Richardson, a young couple planning to move to Canada after learning the €20,000 they have saved isn’t enough for a deposit for a house. “What am I going to miss?” shrugs Aoife as she gazes out over the sprawl of the capital from a lonely hillside. “Nothing comes to mind.”
Broke’s message is that rising prices have affected every generation — in every part of the country. We travel to Donegal where Linda and Gary Boyle have closed their bistro — and are then forced to shutter their food truck business.
The reason for the closure is a fatal storm of underwhelming weather in Donegal and overheads spinning out of control. The business is their life — but it can’t go on. “Cooking oil is up 50 per cent, chicken 90 per cent,” says Gary. “If you’ve ten items to make a dish and everyone increases you have to pass it on.”
His despair is echoed by Dublin security guard Mark Dawney, who has taken on additional shifts to pay the bills — and still fears having to sell the family home.
And in Galway, we meet Patrycja Cichocka and Ryszard Cichocki, who moved to Galway from Poland in 2017 — but who see no future in Ireland for either themselves or their sons. “We love Ireland. But it’s not a place for young people to start their lives and their career,” says Patrycja “They haven’t hope with the high prices.”
Broke isn’t nuanced, and it isn’t particularly interested in why costs have skyrocketed or what can be done about it. However, by giving voices to people who feel they are running out of rope, it serves an important function. It holds up a mirror to a country that has priced itself almost out of existence. For many viewers, the reflection staring back will be their own.
