The political order under which they lived was failing to provide them with basic necessities. It is seeming less and less obvious, less and less to be taken for granted, that this economic order is capable of providing people with those basic necessities, or even that it is especially intended to do so. Free market capitalism is very effective at producing commodities that can be bought and sold quickly, cheaply, and at scale. I want them to be able to stay in this country, and preferably not at the cost of living indefinitely in their childhood home. And I also want them to live in a country that is not perpetually defined and deformed by this crisis of fully functioning free market capitalism.

Source: The Irish Times January 17, 2026 09:00 UTC