{"id":357512,"date":"2026-03-21T08:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/357512\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T08:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:39:09","slug":"how-irelands-housing-crisis-is-forcing-people-to-delay-having-children-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/357512\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ireland\u2019s housing crisis is forcing people to delay having children \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each day, Jennifer McAree wakes up and clings to her mantra: \u201csomething will come up, something will come up.\u201d The 37-year-old is a practical, accomplished, professionally successful and well-educated person who has found herself living back home with her parents in a small village near Monaghan<\/a> town because of Ireland<\/a>\u2019s enduring housing crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She checks online for houses every day. Most of them, she can\u2019t afford, and when houses within her budget do appear she is quickly outbid. It\u2019s hard to buy a house in Ireland as a thirtysomething, but it\u2019s very difficult as a single person trying to do it alone. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just kind of living on hope day to day,\u201d McAree says. \u201cI\u2019d be quite a science-minded person, but I\u2019ve even looked into manifesting.\u201d <\/p>\n

McAree, who has been living at home for more than a year and a half, is one of an emerging generation of Irish people who feel that the housing crisis is posing a threat to the type of life they believed they were destined to have. Because while McAree\u2019s struggle to buy her own home is difficult, what is far harder for her is the knock-on effect the housing crisis is having on her desire to have children. \u201cI can feel time ticking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had hoped to be at a really different stage in my life right now, and it hasn\u2019t worked out that way. And I\u2019d be a person who wouldn\u2019t give up very easily, but it can be very difficult to keep going and keep positive, because it just seems like there\u2019s so many barriers in my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAree is from a small, pleasant village \u2013 but one that is probably more suited to people who have already \u201csettled down\u201d. There are few people her age around \u2013 those who are, are probably already married. Dating apps offer few prospects, she says. She tries to go to classes and clubs, but she\u2019s often the youngest in groups of retirees. She set up a book club, and she went on a singles trip that was a \u201ctotal let-down\u201d. <\/p>\n

Her hopes of meeting someone here are limited, she feels, particularly while sharing a house with her parents. Her social world has become smaller; she explains that \u201cyou can\u2019t really even have friends over for dinner\u201d. As hard as it will be for her to buy a house, even that is now starting to feel more achievable than meeting someone and starting a family. <\/p>\n

But even in Dublin, where the \u201cpool\u201d of thirtysomethings is much bigger, McAree says she has heard female friends describe how difficult it is to meet male partners who will consider planning a family with a woman their own age \u2013 dazzled as they can be by the illusion of infinite choice available on dating apps.<\/p>\n

She says she also thinks women are more educated and independent, and less willing to \u201csettle\u201d for what previous generations of women accepted. \u201cThere\u2019s a strange thing happening in the dating world, where it\u2019s sort of at a standstill,\u201d McAree says. She believes men simply don\u2019t feel the same \u201curgency\u201d to have children that women do, which makes dating harder.<\/p>\n

\"ForFor Jennifer McAree, having ‘a little family of my own … feels so out of reach.’ Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

McAree, who will turn 38 this summer, decided last year to put some of the hard-earned money she was saving for a house deposit towards freezing her eggs. She felt it was a decision she had to take, because \u201cnothing was happening\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was challenging, and it was quite lonely,\u201d she says. While the people in the fertility clinic were nice to her, she felt they were \u201cbusiness like\u201d in their approach. \u201cIt didn\u2019t turn out to be as successful as I hoped. And they were saying to me when I\u2019d finished, \u2018you may have to do it again\u2019,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She left the clinic feeling bamboozled by statistics that were presented to her about success rates and age. \u201cYou\u2019re under even more pressure. You kind of feel like a bit of a failure, and you\u2019re thinking to yourself \u2018will this ever happen\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

In common with many other European countries, Ireland\u2019s birth rate is dropping to what some economists fear will be an unsustainable rate. The Republic\u2019s fertility rate \u2013 the average number of children a woman would be expected to have over her lifetime \u2013 has fallen faster than expected to a rate of 1.5 from a rate of 2.0 in 2012. According to the UN, the fertility rate needed for a stable population is 2.1. <\/p>\n

The amount that the Government will spend on child benefit this year will fall by \u20ac320 million, which the Department of Social Protection has confirmed is because of the State\u2019s falling birth rate. Children who turn 18 and age out of qualifying for children\u2019s allowance are not being replaced by babies first qualifying for the same social welfare payment. \u201cPeak baby\u201d occurred in Ireland in 2010 when 77,000 babies were born. The birth rate has consistently fallen since then; 54,000 babies were born in 2024. This was the last year the Republic hit \u201cpeak child,\u201d the point at which the total number of children in the population started to decline. <\/p>\n

A falling birth rate can make the Republic\u2019s social welfare system less sustainable, its workforce smaller and the State harder to run. It can also present a genuine threat to what is termed the social contract, if voters who deeply desire children feel that the Government is not doing enough to remove the barriers getting in the way of their family planning. Research published last December by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) pointed out that the housing crisis was playing a role <\/a>in suppressing fertility rates. <\/p>\n

At the point I\u2019m at now, I think it may be too late in life \u2026 I don\u2019t want to be coming up towards a pension and trying to raise kids<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Sam Kelly<\/p>\n

It said secure housing was \u201can essential element\u201d in encouraging people to have children. It specifically pointed to the falling population rates in the Republic\u2019s five cities (Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Cork and Dublin) and said \u201chigh housing costs and short-term lets\u201d were \u201cdisplacing families\u201d and leaving behind older populations. So populations are growing around the State\u2019s cities, but not in them. <\/p>\n

The same report also warned that the Government can fall into a \u201cvicious cycle\u201d in which it doesn\u2019t support migration or fertility because it is worried about the current pressures on infrastructure and housing. But this only suppresses fertility further and increases emigration, pushing the State into a \u201cdownward spiral of stagnation,\u201d creating a pattern that NESC warned is very difficult to reverse. <\/p>\n

For some people, such as McAree, the housing crisis has, to some extent, suspended their lives. Those who have had to move home with their parents can feel that they are missing out on the chance to meet a life partner in a bigger, more expensive city. <\/p>\n

But even for those who have already met the person they hope will be the future father or mother of their children, the housing crisis and the cost of living can still have a knock-on effect on planning for a family. <\/p>\n

Thirty-six-year-old Kate Malley from Greystones, Co Wicklow, believes she would already be a mother if it wasn\u2019t for the housing crisis and her fears about childcare affordability. She and her partner have been together for four and a half years. Malley works in the reception\/administrator field while her partner is employed in the food-and-beverage industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney\u201d is the big barrier, she explains. \u201cWe haven\u2019t got a place of our own.\u201d Saving in a high-cost rental market is a challenge, she has found. \u201cI think that we need to get home with one of the parents temporarily, just to put a bit of money aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KateKate Malley, Greystones: ‘Even people with reasonable paying jobs struggle in terms of childcare costs.’ Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

Malley is very conscious of her age, and how postponing pregnancy, because of their situation, may impact her fertility and ultimately her hopes to become a mother. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019m thinking about, but I need to have the right circumstances as well. I would want to make sure that if I\u2019m having a child, I\u2019m bringing them into the right circumstances. That I have enough money to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wouldn\u2019t rule out having a child while living with either set of parents, but is hopeful it won\u2019t come to this. She works in a relatively low-paying sector but points to how \u201ceven people with reasonable paying jobs, they even struggle in terms of childcare costs. I hear of a lot of people where one of the parents doesn\u2019t go back to work, because financially it doesn\u2019t make sense as everything is being spent on childcare. That\u2019s the other thing I\u2019m thinking of down the line. I genuinely don\u2019t know what we could do because I don\u2019t think it would be enough to have just one of our salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Back home as an adult: \u2018I\u2019m 37 and waking up in my husband\u2019s childhood 4ft bed\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

For Malley, the problem is not just being unable to start a family at the moment. There\u2019s also the fact that delaying having a child now could limit her potential to have siblings for any future child. In an ideal world she would like to have had \u201ctwo or three children\u201d.<\/p>\n

She finds conversations and coverage of falling birth rates \u201cfrustrating\u201d. \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot of people in my situation. They would if they could and they can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wishes more could be done to resolve the housing crisis. \u201cI think when that becomes settled, it will make things a lot easier for all families, and people wanting to start a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helena Tubridy, a fertility coach who is working on a guidebook on fertility, said she is seeing increasing numbers of couples who are struggling to have their first or second child after the housing crisis or the cost of living delayed their family planning. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard for people to get a house, and people are hanging on longer in their apartment and they\u2019re not having that second child yet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"FertilityFertility expert Helena Tubridy. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

An additional factor, which was referenced in the NESC report, is how the housing crisis may be forcing those who want to have children out of larger, urban areas. This could mean that young families from cities like Dublin are settling down further from their support networks. The lack of access to a grandparent, aunt or uncle can have a significant effect on the childcare costs a family might face for a second or third child. <\/p>\n

Tubridy says she is seeing a number of cases of what is called \u201csecondary infertility\u201d \u2013 when a couple who already have one child struggle to have another \u2013 in cases where young parents say they felt pressure to have a larger age gap than they would have liked between their first and second child. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0House prices rising at 7% with average cost of Dublin home now close to \u20ac600,000Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really responsible people who are feeling really squeezed. They are looking ahead and saying \u2018how will we afford to pay a mortgage, pay for our existing childcare, and have another child\u2019?\u201d <\/p>\n

Another woman, from Co Cork, is 36 with a 35-year-old partner. She would really like to start a family but says her current living situation makes that impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I want [having children] and I\u2019m worried the choice will be made for me, rather than me making the choice\u201d, she says. \u201cBecause I\u2019m in my 30s I\u2019ve had a lot more time to think about what having kids will be like, the challenges around that and the financial pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re renting at the moment, trying to save for a house.\u201d Her rental property is \u201cnot suitable\u201d to raise a family, she explains. \u201cHousing is one of the main issues. It just feels it\u2019s hopeless. We\u2019re trying not to think about it, but it does get a bit hopeless putting money aside every month.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is trying to make sure she\u2019s in good physical health for when the time comes that she can try to start a family. \u201cI watch my weight. I\u2019m big into fitness. I don\u2019t drink and I\u2019ve never smoked,\u201d she says, but she remains conscious of her age in fertility terms.<\/p>\n

Mentally she is ready to have children, \u201cbut I wouldn\u2019t do it with the way things are\u201d. She feels \u201csad for what could be\u201d. She knows postponing having a baby, combined with the cost of childcare, may influence the number of children she has in the future.<\/p>\n

She would like to see the Government follow the French lead and offer free egg freezing<\/a> to women. \u201cI don\u2019t have any ethical dilemmas around that. That would be a step in the right direction for people\u201d, she says. She\u2019s also like to see more done to manage the high costs of childcare. \u201cThat would be major.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight-year-old Sam Kelly, from Wicklow, says he wonders how anyone of his age can afford to have children. He recently bought a house in Rosslare, Co Wexford, with his partner. The couple lived with her mother for a while as they tried to save and he believes the choice for his generation is coming down to either having a house or children. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d had a child by now, I wouldn\u2019t own this house,\u201d he explains. Kelly commutes to Kildare for work and also runs a business in Greystones. He found it hard to find a house he could afford, even with such a commute. He doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019ll ever be in a position to have children. \u201cSomeone our age cannot afford to have kids \u2026 The fear would be, even with the price of childcare you\u2019d have to give up your job to stay at home to look after them.\u201d With a long commute, he\u2019s conscious of the increasing cost of fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the point I\u2019m at now, I think it may be too late in life \u2026 I don\u2019t want to be coming up towards a pension and trying to raise kids.\u201d He\u2019s seen a change in expectations across his peer group. \u201cI think there\u2019s a whole psychological and social effect. When friends see friends not having kids \u2026 it becomes a trend. And once that happened it becomes the norm. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no longer, in the friend circles, a conversation of \u2018when are you going to settle down and have a kid, get the house, get the garden?\u2019 The conversations now are \u2018what are you doing in your career and what kind of house do you want\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s mothers are the oldest in the EU. Why?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Kelly thinks people in their 30s have grown up with an acceptance that having children may be out of reach. \u201cAs we were growing up through our young adult years, it was the first thing we accepted. I don\u2019t even feel like I had something taken away from me, because I don\u2019t feel like I ever had the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Housing was involved in the membership of NESC, which worked on the recent report on fertility trends. Ireland\u2019s most recent action plan on housing, which was published late last year, is one of the most holistic so far. For example, it considers seriously for the first time the policy issues around causes of homelessness, such as domestic abuse. But the connection between the housing crisis and falling fertility is not explicitly addressed in the plan. <\/p>\n

While we can clearly see that people are having fewer babies, we do not always have robust data to explain why that is. <\/p>\n

For women such as McAree, it is \u201cfrustrating\u201d to see some commentary that ascribes the State\u2019s falling birth rate to vague claims about a more hedonistic or selfish generation of millennial women, rather than concrete socioeconomic factors including housing and the cost of living. She really wants to have children, and would if she could. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to get across is that I am not single and childless for want of trying,\u201d McAree says. Her last relationship, which had been more than two and a half years long, ended after her partner decided he did not want to commit long term. That was when she moved home. <\/p>\n

She says it\u2019s hard not to feel angry with how things are, and \u201chow the Government has allowed this to happen\u201d. <\/p>\n

McAree describes her life now as being trapped in a loop of \u201chope and despair \u2013 picking myself back up again and again, in the hope something good will happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat I\u2019ll finally be able to afford a little house with a garden. That I\u2019ll bump into a great guy on a similar wavelength who knows what he wants and won\u2019t mess me around. That I will finally have a little family of my own. But it feels so out of reach and it\u2019s very hard to stay positive when it feels like the entire system is against you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each day, Jennifer McAree wakes up and clings to her mantra: \u201csomething will come up, something will come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[943,3662,61,60,43,1786,11760,976],"class_list":["post-357512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cost-of-living","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-parenting","tag-parents","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}