The 12th of August is International Youth Day!
The theme for this year is 'Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World', with the United Nations holding talks to discuss issues facing young people.
The National Youth Council, however, want to use the day to highlight issues facing Ireland's younger generation.
More than 70 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds in Ireland say they would consider emigrating.
The continued housing crisis as well as the rising cost of living is said to be pushing young people out.
While there has been increased job availability in the country, there are rising concerns that the wages being paid cannot support life in Ireland.
Director of Advocacy and Policy at the National Youth Council says Ireland will continue to lose young people if nothing is done,
"We do have really low levels of youth unemployment compared to the past.
So before people were driven abroad by lack of jobs. Now there are opportunities here...
And unfortunately, they're looking elsewhere, so we have to look into the reasons behind that and housing is one of the drivers of that."
Rent increases across Ireland. Image: DaftHousing
According to council figures, 6 in 10 Irish young people still live at home with their parents.
The average age for a person to move out now at 28 years old.
Paul Gordon says young people have been trapped by the housing crisis:
"Less security of tenure as they as they grow a bit older. It's having an impact.
People living at home on their relationships on family life we're hearing about young people who might want to get married and have Children and settle down.
But they simply can't because they're either living in separate homes with their parents or they're both living in a parent in one parental home, which can cause tensions as well and that is really having an impact."
CEO of SpunOut Ian Power says the quality of life for Irish young people is seriously lacking.
"We are looking at a generation of young people, for the first time, are going to be worse off than the generation before them."
Pay per unit of time is less for 20-year-olds now than it was in the 70s or 80s. This means despite the price of rent, and living going up, wages have stayed relatively the same.
SpunOut is calling on the government to look closer at intergenerational inequity, to try better understand the needs of young people.
The organisation is hopeful that with the right changes, Ireland could once again become attractive to its youth.
