Madam, - I look with trepidation at the future of young people in this country.
The insurance companies are fleecing them when they try to buy a car. If they try to start a business the price of insurance is prohibitive. They try to get on the housing ladder, and they are playing catch-up. The Department of Education are doing the same when they try to get third-level education.
The Children's Act classes young people as children until they reach the age of 18. Then they are dealt with as adults. When a young person of 18 attempts to gain third-level education, he or she is still classed as the responsibility of the parents, and is assessed on the parents' income. Under the aforementioned Act young people are treated as adults when they reach the age of 18, but a young person of 18 in third-level education is classed as a child.
When I read the bragging and boasting of the Government about having one of the best-educated work forces I fear this will not be so in the near future. I feel it's about time that this Government faced up to the facts.
If it doesn't row back on the imposition of fees for third-level education and regulate the insurance and housing crises, there will be no up and coming people to maintain the industry and trade which will be the wealth of this country for future generations. It will be left to those who are lucky enough to be able to pay for the education of their children from about the age of 18 to probably 24 or 25, then supply them with a car and house and give them a start in business.
These people are in the small minority. The rest of us are in the sinking ship - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL J. KIRWAN, Abbeylands, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.