Jammy mason i tink u may run 4 MP cos mite put dum sense into dem people…..i honestly tink da people da help thru da celtic tiger r suffering…cos sum of dem help a lot with building houses with little qualifican and going bk to skool at 40 is not the answer,helping them find a trade they kno is the way up…

Mensah,
You’re not sending a text to your girlfriend here !
Can you please write your reply using even 5th class english !

Jesus, what are we rearing ?

Sorry Neicy, not to pry but how are you receiving dole if your husband works?

Simply put because he doesn’t earn alot despite working on average 12 hour days. We have three kids and I have been allowed 74 euro per week based on his wages.

Tough situation. Maybe another neighbour could be creative, mind your kids, perhaps do your washing for few quid? Thats what my mother did in the last recession and they had nothing. Just a suggestion, no real answers am afraid. Best of luck

You could do as a lot of the last generation mothers did;

Get up at 5am and work until 8. Et the kids ready for school, look after the house, when the kids and husband are home, go out an do another 3 hours work.

If you can stomach the challenge I’d say try get the hell out of Ireland. We did, and although it’s early days and we badly miss our friends and family in Ireland I can honestly say it’s been a vast improvement in lifestyle. We however did have the luxury of moving to my wife’s home country, so her family are reasonably close by and we’re not totally on our own.
I suppose, I’m trying to say the government sure as hell isn’t going to help, so if you and yours can do what it takes to make that massive change, it’s well worth the effort.
From the point where we sat down and seriously discussed the possibility of a move it took us about 8 months to organise a employment from Ireland (phone interviews and what not), and once my wife got a job it took us 4 months to move.
I went back to full time education, my wife works full time, we rent our home in Ireland (and pay the balance of the mortgage with my student loan) and we’re still better off here, we have more disposable income now than we did in the last year living in Ireland . We were both employed in Ireland.
If you’re eager enough, and willing to put the work in there are ways (even if they are extreme, like leaving Ireland) to get things seriously back on track.
Here’s hoping I’m as confident in two years time, but so far it’s been a no-brainer, wish I’d done it sooner.

Diarmuid – while I appreciate the idea behind your suggestion no neighbour of nine is going to mind my kids for free – I do think last time around there was probably a greater sense of community that is lacking now. Where we live I only know a handful of my neighbours well and at that not even well enough to trust them with my kids. When we were kids you knew everyone well. Thanks for your well wishes

DubinNaas – my hubby leaves here at 7 every morning. I have applied for numerous night positions because as you point out there would be no need for childcare. Again without success. Saying that it is not possible for all mothers of children to work at night. An unemployed mums day is a fairly hectic days work in its self – :)

Paul- what can I say? I think like all young families we have discussed the idea of moving away. While we have alot of good friends here we don’t have any family around and this is something that has kind of stopped us. We miss them around as it is and our kids very much enjoy visiting them. I would hate the idea of them and us being upset !
On the other hand the possibilities for both my hubby and I know and our kids in the future are surely a little better somewhere else – even if it does break my heart to say it! Best of luck to you and your family :)

Joe Higgins is perpetually offended. Gilmore was right.

Joe Higgins does tend to be outraged a lot. But that doesn’t mean Eamon Gilmore isn’t a twat.

Thankfully some politicians are offended still. Not enough though!

But get used to it because to FG the unemployed are a statistic. A statistic they’re waiting to get on an aeroplane off their pages.

Agreed, non national is a misnomer. ‘Foreigner’ is a much more accurate word

Hi,
I have been reading your comments over that last few weeks.
Do me a favour, write a thousand page book on all the shit we know nothing about and I will buy it and read it from front to back.

OK, LIC, really, explain it better. I saw you mentioning opinions a while back and I looked it up and you’re right opinions are used to circumvent law but just stating that makes people think you’re ranting. I looked it up but most don’t.

Thanks by the way, its good to know.

@John Delaney: If you had any sense of duty and loyalty the only book you need to read is the Irish Constitution.

All of the Rules are available @ http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/home.html.

Go and read them and then you will understand how you might need to protect yourself legally at a later date.

@Chris Connolly M:

I have tried for years to talk to people and they generally end up confused. Now my approach is to keep it as simple as possible.

I generally find that people are more preoccupied with money, the house, the job, the kids and everything else is just too much work.

Cheers lic

Dr Diarmuid Donoghue: Cheers for what?

I’m not sure the figure is that high, but I agree COMPLETELY with the principle of what you are saying

wtf? what if they’ve paid their taxes? they’re entitled to it as much as anybody.