Tag: Cost Of Living

The main venues of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games have changed. Here’s the new plan

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A review of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympics and Paralympics venues has recommended ensuring the Games leave a legacy in the city.

Former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk, who led the review, recommended a new stadium be built in inner-city Victoria Park and the Gabba Stadium redevelopment be scrapped.

The Queensland government agreed with “most of it” and accepted 27 of the 30 recommendations.

So, will Brisbane have a new stadium for the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

The government has “ruled out” the review’s recommendation to build a new stadium at Victoria Park in Brisbane.

Former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk said the review had found the proposal at Victoria Park was the best option.(Supplied: Archipelago)

Mr Miles said it was rejected because it is a more expensive option.

“When Queenslanders are struggling with housing and other costs, I cannot justify to them spending $3.4 billion on a new stadium,” he said.

Brisbane architect Peter Edwards said he is “mystified about why that seems to be so politically fraught”.

“We have to have a low-cost Games in 2032, which is our once-ever moment to present ourselves on the global stage,” he said.

What will happen to Brisbane’s Gabba stadium?

The Gabba redevelopment north-eastern view ahead of the 2023 Brisbane Olympic Games, stadium in background fans in foreground

An artist’s impression of the now-abandoned plan to redevelop the Gabba stadium at Woolloongabba.(Supplied: Queensland government)

Mr Miles said the “iconic Gabba will always be a stadium”, but the rebuild will not proceed.

He said too much has been invested in building public transport around the stadium.

“I don’t see a scenario where a future government demolishes the Gabba,” Mr Miles said.

He said the stadium will undergo a “refurbishment” ahead of the Games, in consultation with stakeholders.

AFL and Cricket Australia will no longer be displaced from the Gabba, and East Brisbane State School will not need to vacate its current site by the end of 2025.

The stadium will also no longer host the opening and closing ceremonies.

What about Lang Park?

Brisbane’s Lang Park is already the “spirit of rugby league” and now will be the “Olympic stadium”.

Mr Miles said the stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2032 Games.

“I’m biased, but I’ve always thought it was the best rectangular field in the world,” he said.

Alan Graham, general manager of Suncorp Stadium, said the stadium was looking forward to participating in the “wonderful Games” by improving the technology, adding large LED screens, additional seating, and better access.

Where will the athletic events be held?

An image of the athletics running track at the Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre in Brisbane

Under the new plan, the athletics events will be held at QSAC (Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre) at Nathan in Mt Gravatt.(ABC News: Dean Caton)

Queensland Sport and Athletics Complex (QSAC) is set to be upgraded to hold athletic events, despite the review rejecting the option.

Mr Miles said it was ruled out by the review due to Olympic access costs, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has committed to him that it will “work to minimise those requirements”.

“QSAC is one of our most used venues, but we will turn it into the best athletics venue in Australia,” he said.

How much will it cost?

The government said the “new direction” for the Games ensures costs “remain within the agreed funding envelope of $7.1 billion, to be shared between the state and commonwealth governments”.

the gabba stadium

The Queensland and federal government had previously made a $7 billion funding agreement to redevelop the Gabba and build Brisbane Live Arena at Roma Street Station.(ABC News: Christopher Gillette)

The cost of upgrading QSAC, and how long it will take, is yet to be determined.

Mr Miles said that if the upgrades cost $1 billion, it would still leave “in the order of a billion dollars” to be splurged, “roughly half-half” between upgrading Lang Park and the Gabba.

What about the other Olympic venues?

Brisbane Live exterior daytime graphic with arena in the middle and fans walking nearby

The Brisbane Live Arena was originally meant to be built on top of Roma Street Station, and is now set to be built at Roma Street parklands nearby.(Supplied: Queensland government)

State Development Minister Grace Grace said the government supports the recommendation to build the Brisbane Arena in the new location at the upper end of Roma Street Parklands.

Moreton Bay Indoor Sport Centre will proceed, with the site’s expansion being investigated.

Toowoomba Sports Ground will not proceed, as recommended, but the government will explore opportunities to host other events in the region.

Albion’s Breakfast Creek Indoor Sports Precinct will also not proceed, with a centre in Zillmere or Boondall to be considered instead.

What about the athlete villages?

The locations of the athlete villages were not part of the review.

Mr Miles said villages will remain at Hamilton in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast, and on the Sunshine Coast.

Now the review is done, what’s next?

Ms Grace said the government will now “move quickly”.

“We’ve got a path forward,” she said.

An independent delivery authority will oversee the sports venue program, which is set to be established by mid-2024.

Queensland Development Minister Grace Grace wears a dark blazer.

Grace Grace said the government will move quickly to deliver the infrastructure needed for the 2032 Games.(ABC News)

Will Brisbane be ready in time for the 2032 Olympic Games?

Griffith University Cities Research Institute director Professor Paul Burton said the longer debates and discussions continue, the probability of projects being rushed, unfinished, and expensive increases.

 “Delays often come during the development phase, not the construction phase,” he said.

“The sooner you can start construction, the better.”

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‘Mafia’ strikes bring Finland to a standstill

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Unions have called the industrial action to protest government proposals on labour law reforms which they say would adversely impact low-wage earners

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Hundreds of thousands of workers in Finland have joined widespread strikes which began Wednesday and will escalate through Thursday and Friday – with more strikes planned next week too. 

Unions called for industrial action to protest government proposals on labour law reforms which they say would adversely impact low-wage earners and shift a balance of power towards employers when it comes to setting salaries. 

A rally in the capital Helsinki attracted 10,000 workers, police said. A member of parliament from the ruling National Coalition Party wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that protesters had been paid “bribes” to attend. He offered no evidence to substantiate his claim. 

The strike comes right in the middle of campaigning in the second round of Finland’s presidential election, with politicians from the left and right canvassing hard for votes ahead of the ballot on Sunday 11 February.

The government maintains that their sweeping reforms are needed to make the Finnish economy more competitive, and as an indicator of how important the new proposals are to each side, the rhetoric has become more heated and divisive in recent weeks. 

“The need to reform our social security system and increase employment is urgent because of our public debt level. We need to get more people to work, decrease public spending and improve the operating environment to attract investments,” says Arto Satonen, Finland’s Minister for Employment. 

“The EU has pointed a finger at our debt-based public spending outlook and also the IMF has strongly supported the current Finnish government’s policies. For the sake of our future well-being, we should not and cannot leave the reforms undone,” he tells Euronews. 

Which sectors are hit by the strike action?

Unions estimate up to 300,000 workers could participate in the strikes, with Thursday’s rally in Helsinki bringing politicians from each side to the stage to address the crowd, many of whom held colourful balloons and placards. 

A strike by daycare staff in the capital city region started Wednesday, and they were joined by workers from across the spectrum of Finnish working life, impacting trains, trams and buses; airports, airlines and cabin crew; shipping, ferries and port operations; energy production companies; department stores and supermarket chains, hotels and restaurants; cleaning companies; tourism and leisure businesses; Finland’s biggest paper mills, mines and refineries; construction companies; and postal services. 

Maria Löfgren, the President of Akava which represents professional and managerial staff, tells Euronews that her union has “sought to resolve the escalated situation by proposing balancing solutions to the Prime Minister.” 

“So far, the government has not committed to taking them into account […] we want our solution to be genuinely considered,” she says.  

Minister Satonen, from the ruling National Coalition Party, says the government has been working together with unions when preparing its reforms, but they are “absolutely necessary” and that unions cannot have a “right of veto” on the plans. 

What exactly does the Finnish government want to change?

At the heart of the dispute are two main changes the government says it needs to make the Finnish economy more competitive. 

First, there would be swingeing cuts to social welfare provisions, with some of those cuts already implemented. Unions say it would mean hundreds of euros lost each month for people already on low incomes – a serious issue in sectors like retail where wages are already low – and it would adversely impact women who are more likely to be employed in some of those low-wage occupations. 

Secondly, the government wants to rewrite the rules on collective bargaining. 

Finland had traditionally used a tripartite model for labour negotiations: involving the government, representatives from trade unions, and representatives from employers too. That system has largely collapsed in recent years for various reasons, but the government’s latest raft of changes to negotiations, unions claim, would mean the bargaining power of workers is further weakened. 

Unions are concerned that more changes to this decades-old system would be detrimental as it fragments wage negotiations and puts more power in the hands of industries or individual companies to set maximum wage increase levels, potentially leading to income disparity even among people with similar jobs.

“In the long run, this kind of change would almost surely mean lower wages and less beneficial conditions for workers,” says Pekka Ristelä, Head of International Affairs at SAK, the Confederation of Finnish Trade Unions.

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The government has also proposed a system in which pay across the economy is tied to the export sector. It would bar the national labour mediator, which is frequently involved in setting pay, from proposing wage hikes in any labour dispute that are higher than those agreed with the export sector.

Reform plans, and strike action, fire up war of words

The government’s plans, and the unions’ calls for strike action, have again pitted Finland’s ruling right against the left. 

Government ministers have called the unions “mafia”, while right-wing politicians have claimed union leaders will “punish” workers who opt not to strike, and offered free legal advice to anyone in this situation. Another MP from a government party described the right to industrial action as a “pointless inconvenience.” 

Finland’s coalition government, which includes a far-right party as the second biggest partner, has repeatedly tried to paint the strikes as dangerously political, saying they have already secured a mandate from the voters to carry out their reforms – and that unions shouldn’t try to outflank them. 

A citizens’ initiative petition to ban so-called political strikes is supported by several politicians from the prime minister’s party.  

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“It is dangerous if we start seeing internationally recognised, established social players as ‘mafia’ and using those kind of labels. I would say that can be the start of a very harmful societal development,” says SAK’s Pekka Ristelä. 

“International treaties, in particular the ILO, has specific rules on what kind of political strikes must be allowed, and political strikes are directed against government policies that have an effect on workers,” he adds, describing a worrying “Trump effect” where legitimate actions are called into question.

“On the whole, we have wide support in the population.”



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Why young adults in Italy and Ireland have to live with their parents

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In the face of rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, Euronews investigates the reasons why young people are struggling to get on the property ladder or afford to pay rent.

Sophie is just one of 350,000 young adults in Ireland between the ages of 20-35 still living in her family home. Like many millennials in Ireland, the 28-year-old marketing executive from Galway is locked out of the housing market.

This problem is not unique to Ireland, according to Eurostat, approximately 67% of people (between 16-29) in Europe live at home with their parents or relatives, but for some, this is not a choice.

The Galway native told Euronews that rising inflation coupled with the cost-of-living crisis is largely to blame: “It’s so frustrating, I have a master’s degree, a good salary and like so many of my friends I’m saving to buy a house.

“But I had to move back in with mum and dad because I was struggling to save money, let alone pay rent, even now it is going to take me forever to save a deposit,” she said.

Affordability is a major issue, as Ciarán Lynch, a former member of the Irish Parliament explained: “House prices have never been so expensive and interest rates are increasingly rising for people coming into the housing market.

“They are almost as close to the figures from two years ago when interest rates were particularly set by the European Central Bank”.

The Mortgage Crux

Considering that house prices on average in Ireland are 94% above those of the EU, Sophie’s dilemma is not surprising.

In order to be eligible for a mortgage in Ireland, first-time buyers are limited to a loan of four times their gross annual income, a prospective mortgage is also capped at 90% of a property’s value.

However, house prices across the country have risen 537% since 1988 and are not in line with today’s earnings.

According to recruitment solutions giant Morgan McKinley, professionals in Ireland take home an average salary of €45,000. However, the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) recently revealed that the average Irish house price is now a record-breaking €359,000.

So, for single-income, first-time buyers with a salary of €45,000, the maximum amount they can borrow is €180,000, which is slightly more than half of the average house price.

Ireland vs Italy

House prices and rents vary from one EU Member State to the next, in fact, in some EU countries, house prices have dropped in recent years. Italy, for example, experienced a boom until the financial crash in 2008 and then the cost of property steadily dropped. According to Eurostat, prices were cheaper in 2022 compared to 2010.

While rents have increased in Italy, the differences are marginal compared to Estonia, Lithuania, or Ireland where the average monthly rent stood at €1,733 in December 2022, that’s 126% higher than in 2011.

If the Italian house prices are more attractive to potential buyers, does this translate to higher levels of property ownership among young adults? On the contrary, a higher percentage of young adults live at home with their parents in Italy than in Ireland.

So, what are the drivers behind this trend in both countries?

Ireland’s lack of supply

While median gross salaries in Ireland are considerably higher than in Italy, available homes are also few and far between on the Emerald Isle.

“In 2010, we had 24,000 rental properties advertised on Daft (Ireland’s top property site) on any one day of that year, compare this to recent figures when we had just 700 properties available right across the country,” said Mark Rose, the managing director of Rose Properties.

“So now we have approximately 3% of what was available in 2010, we need thousands of rental properties to be loaded onto the market today, tomorrow or as soon as possible, they are urgently, urgently needed,” Rose added.

Limited properties are increasing demand and are placing a serious strain on rents and potential buyers, as the managing director of Dennehy Auctioneers in Cork told Euronews: “The rental market in Ireland is totally and utterly dysfunctional. We put a house up to rent two weeks ago at 12:55 pm and by 13:20 pm we had 90 emails (enquiries)”.

“We need thousands of apartments in cities to keep up with demand, however, Ireland is a victim of its own success, a lot of people want to come and live and work in this country and are attracted by the lifestyle, but our population is also growing and we can’t keep up,” Dennehy said.

The Central Statistics Office estimated that the population in Ireland increased by 88,800 between April 2021 and April 2022, the largest 12-month population increase since 2008. This is largely due to a 445% surge in migration and according to Dennehy, foreign direct investment is part of this trend: “Ninety per cent of the inquiries I am currently receiving for a new housing development in Carrigaline (a commuter town in Cork) are from non-nationals, and ninety per cent of those again are non-EU”.

“The professionals coming here have good jobs, they are well paid and they love this country”.

But former deputy Lynch who chaired the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform in October 2012, said non-nationals with money to burn are also running into problems: “Foreign direct investment is a very, very significant part of the Irish economic model. And job creation has become a problem because it’s not that the jobs aren’t there, but the houses aren’t actually there for the employees when they get those jobs.”

The Italian job

“Property might be cheaper in Italy but the problem lies with the country’s stagnant labour market,” said Mimmo Parisi, a sociology professor from the University of Mississippi.

The senior advisor for European and data science development told Euronews: “Everyone is looking for that dream job in Italy and professionals don’t move around much, once they find a dream position they stay, often for life. As a consequence, there are fewer job openings and it’s difficult for young adults to enter the job market”.

High youth unemployment in Italy is a major factor. According to Italy’s national statistics institute, ISTAT, the unemployment rate (for youths aged 15-24) was 22.9% in January 2023, nearly eight points higher than the EU average of 15.1%, as a consequence young Italians are less financially independent.

“Add dubious work contracts, slow wage growth and low salaries to the mix and it is easy to see why young Italians are stuck at home despite falling house prices. It is also difficult for university graduates to secure relevant short-term work experience when the labour market works in favour of an ageing workforce,” explained Parisi.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Italy is the only European country where wages fell between 1990 and 2020, all the other Member States experienced a rise with Lithuania leading the charge with a 276.3% increase.

“Many students stay in university that bit longer when hunting for that dream job, which as we’ve learned is difficult to come by. This forces young adults to be more reliant on their parents until that happens,” Parisi said.

To add to the plight of youths, an Italian bank will not approve a mortgage without a permanent work contract otherwise known as ‘il contratto a tempo indeterminato’, which creates additional obstacles.

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Why can’t youths in Italy and Ireland afford to move out of home?

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In the second part of our three-part series, Euronews investigates how tourism is proving to be both a blessing and a curse for young people hoping to buy or rent property in Italy and Ireland.

Competing with tourists

Italy’s charming lakes, world-famous gastronomy, climate and heritage attract millions of tourists every year. Some 56 million tourists reportedly visited the Bel Paese in 2022; a figure close to pre-pandemic levels.

While tourism is one of the main drivers behind Europe’s third-largest economy, locals in some of Italy’s most popular cities like Milan, Rome, Venice and Naples are struggling to compete with the year-round flow of tourists for a limited supply of housing.

Airbnb, the online accommodation service that allows property owners to rent their homes or rooms to travellers, was introduced to the country in 2008. According to resident Fabio Scrivanti who works at the Venice Art Factory, it created a living nightmare for locals needing affordable accommodation solutions.

“Venetian landlords discovered that it was more profitable to list their property on Airbnb than rent to everyday people,” he told Euronews.

“It’s controversial because locals can’t afford to pay upwards of say €80 for a room per night — the price someone might pay for an overnight stay in a hotel — if they had to reckon with these prices, that would amount to €2,400 per month, that’s crazy, I certainly couldn’t afford that,” he said.

“I am 29, I have a master’s degree and work in the field I studied at university, I have lots of experience but even still, salaries are not high in Italy. People my age can’t afford rent, never mind a house of their own, lots of my friends are still living at home with their parents, it’s just easier.

“I got lucky with my shared apartment because my landlord gave me my room at a good price but this is rare, I know this isn’t the reality for many people” he explained.

Aside from Airbnb, astronomical rents in some of Italy’s major hubs are also making it more difficult for city residents to afford down payments on mortgages. According to Europe’s largest online rental platform, Housing Everywhere, Milan is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. 

Lucia Pizzimenti (35) an environmental engineer, living and working in Milan, told Euronews: “I am living with my grandmother who has a spare room in her apartment because I don’t want to pay upwards of €800 for a small room here”. 

Lucia has been searching for a property of her own for the last seven years but recently she had to broaden her search to commuter towns or nearby cities in order to find a flat within her budget.

As aspiring renters and homeowners in Italy continue to battle the influx of tourists post-pandemic and soaring accommodation costs, the lack of short-term accommodation solutions in Ireland is discouraging tourists from visiting the Emerald Isle.

The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) says the cost inflation on holiday accommodation is having a negative impact on the tourism sector and that one-third of tourism beds outside of the capital are under government housing contracts, serving as international protection accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers. In County Donegal alone more than 50 per cent of tourism beds are contracted by the Government.

The number of international visitors to Ireland during the first quarter of 2023 was 16 per cent below January-March 2019. As Irish tourism providers struggle to match Ireland’s pre-COVID tourism levels, many companies within the tourism sector fear ongoing price hikes will put Ireland’s long-term reputation at risk.

This affects activity and tour providers across the country who rely heavily on hotels, B&Bs, hostels and Airbnb to house visitors during their stays.

Nowhere to go

Europe’s migration crisis or the strain it places on the lack of available accommodation is now having an effect on refugees and locals alike.

According to the Irish Refugee Council, rapid increases in asylum seekers, specifically Ukrainian refugees, have highlighted the shortcomings of Ireland’s housing policy. So far, some 73,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Ireland since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and they all need a place to live.

The Irish Red Cross reported that the lack of readily available emergency accommodation solutions in Ireland for Ukrainian refugees had reached a crisis point in July 2022 despite the public’s best efforts. In March 2022, Irish Red Cross Secretary General Liam O’Dwyer confirmed that approximately 23,000 locations had been offered up by the public to be vetted to house Ukrainians. 

While Irish residents were hailed for their generosity, this figure wasn’t enough. As a consequence, some Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland had little choice but to sleep on the floor of Dublin Airport, in hotel lobbies and temporary campsites.

The Irish government has promised to find solutions to the housing shortage and support local communities, newcomers and asylum seekers alike but the ITIC says that tourism and the revenue it generates also need to be factored into the equation.

The decade of lost development

According to Mark Rose, the Managing Director of Rose Properties, Ireland’s economic growth and recovery post the 2008 crash was largely thanks to foreign direct investment: “We have recovered well, there is lots of money and lots of jobs in Ireland but there no housing to support everyone that we are attracting in. So, even if we wanted to attract in builders to help relieve the crisis, as many countries do, there would be nowhere for them to live,” he said.

“We had little to no building in this country for nine or ten years because there was no money to build, architects, bricklayers, electricians, builders, they all moved overseas to Australia etc in search of work, and these professionals never returned”.

While Ireland is still one of the least densely-populated countries in Europe, the laws governing planning permission create a lot of red tape for potential builders, as Roy Dennehy, the Head of Dennehy Auctioneers explained: “We’re living in the lag period because in 2006 we had a population of maybe four and a half million, but we were building 90,000 units. 

“That’s between apartments and houses per annum. The population is higher now and we are only building a fraction of what we were” he added.

The CSO found that some 30,000 residential units were built in Ireland last year, a third of the dwellings built across the Irish State in 2006.

Stay tuned for the final article in this three-part series in the coming week.

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Why can’t youths in Italy and Ireland afford to move out of home?

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In this three-part series, Euronews investigates the reasons why young people in Ireland and Italy are struggling to get on the property ladder or afford rent amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Sophie is just one of 350,000 young adults in Ireland between the ages of 20-35 still living in her family home. Like many millennials in Ireland, the 28-year-old marketing executive from Galway is locked out of the housing market.

This problem is not unique to Ireland. According to Eurostat, approximately 67% of people aged 16-29 in Europe live at home with their parents or relatives. But for some, this is not a matter of choice.

Galway native Sophie told Euronews that rising inflation, coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, is largely to blame: “It’s so frustrating, I have a master’s degree, a good salary and like so many of my friends I’m saving to buy a house.

“But I had to move back in with Mum and Dad because I was struggling to save money, let alone pay rent. Even now it is going to take me forever to save a deposit,” she said.

Affordability is a major issue. Two years ago, for example, interest rates, particularly those set by the European Central Bank, were still at record lows.

 “But now we are now seeing situations where quarter upon quarter the ECB is increasing its interests rates by at least half of a base point” Ciarán Lynch, a former member of the Irish Parliament, told Euronews.

The Mortgage Crux

With average house prices in Ireland, 94% higher than those in other EU countries, Sophie’s situation is perhaps not surprising.

In order to be eligible for a mortgage in Ireland, first-time buyers are limited to a loan of four times their gross annual income. A prospective mortgage is also capped at 90 per cent of a property’s value.

However, house prices across the country have risen 537 per cent since 1988 and are not in line with today’s earnings.

According to recruitment solutions giant Morgan McKinley, professionals in Ireland take home an average salary of €45,000. However, the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) recently revealed that the average Irish house price is now a record-breaking €359,000.

So, for single-income, first-time buyers with a salary of €45,000, the maximum amount they can borrow is €180,000, which is slightly more than half of the average house price.

Ireland vs Italy

While house prices and rents are generally increasing across the European bloc, in some EU countries property prices have dropped in recent years. Italy, for example, experienced a boom until the financial crash in 2008 and then the cost of property steadily dropped. According to Eurostat, prices were eight per cent cheaper in 2022 compared to 2010.

While rents have increased in Italy, the differences are marginal compared to Estonia, Lithuania, or Ireland where the average monthly rent stood at €1,733 in December 2022, that’s 126% higher than the figures seen in 2011.

If house prices in Italy are more attractive to potential buyers, does this translate to higher levels of property ownership among young Italian adults? On the contrary, a higher percentage of young adults live at home with their parents in Italy than in Ireland.

So, what are the drivers behind this trend in both countries?

Ireland’s lack of supply

While median gross salaries in Ireland are considerably higher than in Italy, available homes are also few and far between on the Emerald Isle.

“In 2010, we had 24,000 rental properties advertised on Daft (Ireland’s top property site) on any one day of that year, compare this to recent figures when we had just 700 properties available right across the country,” said Mark Rose, the managing director of Rose Properties, Cork.

“So now we have approximately 3 per cent of what was available in 2010.  We need thousands of rental properties to be loaded onto the market today, tomorrow or as soon as possible. They are urgently, urgently needed,” Rose added.

The limited availability of properties is increasing demand and placing a serious strain on rents and potential buyers. 

Roy Dennehy, managing director of Dennehy Auctioneers, told Euronews: “The rental market in Ireland is totally and utterly dysfunctional. We put a house up to rent two weeks ago at 12:55 pm and by 13:20 pm we had 90 emails (enquiries).”

“We need thousands of apartments in cities to keep up with demand. However, Ireland is a victim of its own success. A lot of people want to come and live and work in this country and are attracted by the lifestyle, but our population is also growing and we can’t keep up,” Dennehy said.

The Central Statistics Office estimated that the population in Ireland increased by 88,800 persons from April 2021 – April 2022, the largest 12-month population increase since 2008. This is largely due to a 445 per cent surge in migration, and according to Dennehy, foreign direct investment is part of this trend. “Ninety per cent of the inquiries I am currently receiving for a new housing development in the town of Carrigaline, Cork, is from non-nationals, and ninety per cent of those again are non-EU”.

“The professionals coming here have good jobs, they are well paid and they love this country”.

But former deputy  Ciarán Lynch, who chaired the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform in October 2012, said non-nationals with money to burn are also running into problems.

 “Foreign direct investment is a very, very significant part of the Irish economic model,” he said.

 “And job creation has become a problem because it’s not that the jobs aren’t there, but the houses aren’t actually there for the employees when they get those jobs.”

The Italian job

“Property might be cheaper in Italy but the problem lies with the country’s stagnant labour market,” said Mimmo Parisi, a sociology professor from the University of Mississippi, who is a senior adviser for European data science development.

Parisi told Euronews: “Everyone is looking for that dream job in Italy and professionals don’t move around much, once they find a dream position they stay, often for life. As a consequence, there are fewer job openings and it’s difficult for young adults to enter the job market”.

High unemployment among youths in Italy is a major factor. According to Italy’s national statistics institute, ISTAT, the unemployment rate for youths (aged 15-24) was 22.9 per cent in January 2023, nearly eight points higher than the EU average of 15.1 per cent.  As a consequence, young Italians are less financially independent.

“Add dubious work contracts, slow wage growth and low salaries to the mix and it is easy to see why young Italians are stuck at home despite falling house prices. It is also difficult for university graduates to secure relevant short-term work experience when the labour market works in the favour of an ageing workforce,” explained Parisi.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Italy is the only European country where wages fell between 1990 and 2020, all the other Member States experienced a rise with Lithuania leading the charge with a 276.3 per cent increase.

“Many students stay in university that bit longer when hunting for that dream job, which as we’ve learned is difficult to come by. This forces young adults to be more reliant on their parents until that happens,” Parisi said.

Banks place another obstacle in the way of young Italians. An Italian bank will not approve a mortgage without a permanent work contract otherwise known as ‘il contract contratto a tempo indeterminato’, which creates additional obstacles.

Stay tuned for the next article in this three-part series in the coming week.

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#youths #Italy #Ireland #afford #move #home

Food barons: Who are the billionaires profiting from a global crisis?

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In the past few years, the world has experienced the rise of food billionaires – companies profiting from skyrocketing prices and making huge revenues while many are forced to cut back or go hungry.

Just like in the energy sector, food companies have been cashing in from the cost of living crisis that has followed the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while companies like Shell and Exxon are almost household names, the names of the businesses pulling the strings of the food industry – Cargill and Walmart, among others – are less well-known, and much less scrutinised.

“It’s surprising in a way, because I think that they’re doing exactly the same thing as the fossil fuel corporations,” Nick Dearden, director of NGO Global Justice Now, told Euronews. “You’ve got a bunch of corporations that are growing more and more and more powerful all the time, gaining more control over different aspects of the food system and massively profiteering.

“And during a cost of living crisis, where many people are struggling to afford heating and food, they are making an absolute fortune and they’re doing it in the same way as the energy corporations. Essentially, they are monopolising a very basic thing that we all need.”

While the supply of food keeps increasing on a global level, even despite the setback caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war that has followed, and would be “more than enough to feed everybody in the world, the number of people who are chronically malnourished is going up,” Dearden said.

“There’s something really rotten at the heart of the system that allows people to go seriously hungry, to be malnourished, and in the worst cases to starve, while we have enough food.”

In a recent report on the issue, ETC researchers Hope Shand, Kathy Jo Wetter, and Kavya Chowdhry called the biggest players in the food and agricultural industries “food barons” – a title that immediately points to the power these corporations exert on the food industry.

Where do food billionaires come from?

Food barons existed long before the pandemic, or the cost of living crisis. These are companies that have established themselves through decades and have come to control large parts of the sector. But the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have had a huge role in increasing their relevance – and their numbers.

According to a recent report by Oxfam titled “Profiting from pain”, food billionaires have seen their collective wealth grow by an estimated 45 per cent over the past two years – for a total of £328 billion added to their profits. In the same years, 62 new billionaires were created as companies inflated their profits by capitalising on the COVID pandemic and now the growing cost-of-living crisis that has forced many to cut back and even choose between eating or heating their homes.

Same as energy companies, food billionaires have seen their wealth increase by one billion dollars every two days between 2020 and 2022. This surge in profits was mostly led by the trillions of dollars national governments have injected into their economies to keep them from collapsing, which had the unwanted side effect of driving up the price of key assets, like food.

“Looking at the figures, you find that the number of corporations that controlled the wheat industry several decades ago was a relatively small number, but nowhere near as small as it is today,” Dearden said.

“But also those corporations are finding synergies with other parts of the food system that allow them to lock in their controls. So, for example, if you have a huge stake in the pesticide and chemical industry and you also have a huge stake in the seed industry controlling the seeds that farmers grow, that’s a huge synergy because you can ensure that your seeds work with your fertilisers or your chemicals and that they can only be used together and that gives you additional control of the industry.”

The ETC report “Food Barons 2022” found that 2020 “was a horrific year for food security and health – but a bonanza for Big Food and Big Ag [Agriculture].”

The researchers write that in the midst of the pandemic, “these Food Barons made the most of the converging crises in order to tighten their grip on every link in the Industrial Food Chain” undermining “the rights of peasants, smallholders, fishers and pastoralists to produce food for their own communities and many others.”

What are the companies we call “food barons”?

ETC has identified “just four to six” dominant firms which control every aspect of the food industry, from agriculture machinery to animal pharmaceuticals. Two of these are also named by Oxfam in its report about food billionaires: the two “dynasties” of Cargill and Walmart.

Cargill is a global food giant owned by the 11th richest family in the world and one of the world’s largest private companies, though its name is not on the high street and might be unknown to most. In 2017, according to Oxfam, the company was reported among the four controlling over 70 per cent of the global market for agricultural commodities. Fluctuations in the global price of grains have led to Cargill growing its profits and the Cargill family growing its collective wealth by 65% since 2020, with four members joining Forbes list of the richest 500 people in the world.

Cargill’s competitor Louis Dreyfus Co., an agricultural trading house, also made huge profits out of the troubles with the grain market.

Walmart, the supermarket chain which is ubiquitous in the US, has received around $15 billion in cash dividends from the company, as the goods sold in their stores got more expensive and the wages of its employees stayed mostly the same.

Is the food system broken – and can it be fixed?

The problem with the way the food system works at the moment, Dearden said, is that the industry is “in a tiny number of hands and effectively controlled on the basis of how much profit those companies can make” rather than preventing people from being hungry.

“Many food corporations, because they saw that there was going to be panic around the war in Ukraine, they raised prices. They used the crisis to profiteer, essentially,” Dearden said. “And it wasn’t just the food corporations, it was also people speculating on the price of food in the financial markets. And these markets are not only privatised and monopolised, they’re also increasingly financialised as well.”

Speculation around food prices in the financial markets actually contributed to rising food prices, Dearden said.

But there’s a growing movement for creating an alternative food system.

“We work a lot with groups in the Global South, particularly in many African countries and Latin American countries, particularly Brazil and they call themselves small farmer movements.

They are working to create a different food system which actually helps the ordinary small scale farmers that still, interestingly, produce most of the world’s food outside of these gigantic markets.

One way of creating an alternative food system would be to make small-scale farming a financially sustainable profession, without the constant competition of much bigger corporations.

“I think we have to convince people that if [small farming] is the kind of system that they want, if they want good quality food just grown by small producers who are reasonably local to where they are, that’s possible,” Dearden said.

“But we need to have a framework that can make that kind of business manageable, where people are not going to be on the breadline and are not going to be forced out of business by enormous supermarkets, by enormous grain producers, by the financial markets.”

Euronews has contacted Walmart and Cargill’s media team for comment.

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A solution for global food insecurity may be hiding in our oceans

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

As any investor knows, a diverse portfolio is an important risk mitigation strategy, offsetting potential losses from one investment with the returns from another. The same is true when it comes to food security.

Countries investing in the full range of accessible and affordable foods can therefore rely on certain sub-sectors to provide vital nutrition when others are affected by a climate shock or conflict, minimising the kind of disruption, volatility, and inflation currently playing out.

Blue food — foods derived from aquatic animals, plants and algae caught or cultivated in freshwater and marine environments — are a key part of many diets and have a potentially important role to play in a transition towards more healthy and sustainable ways of eating.

Yet, for most countries, aquatic foods remain something of a blind spot and have been remarkably absent in discussions about how to rapidly transform and de-risk our food systems. 

This needs to change because blue foods have much to offer.

We are neglecting a diverse food source with low environmental footprint

For one, they are immensely diverse. Globally, we catch, farm and consume more than 2,500 species of fish, shellfish and aquatic plants. 

With growing stress on existing food systems from climate change, environmental harm and rising populations, this diversity represents significant potential for finding culturally acceptable blue foods with high nutritional and economic value yet relatively low environmental impact. 

It can thus alleviate pressure on land-based production systems while offering lower-emission, often nutrient-dense alternatives to many terrestrial — and particularly red and processed — meats.

The returns on offer from blue foods vary depending on the context. By compiling and assessing extensive research conducted within the Blue Food Assessment, a new paper identifies four valuable roles that fish and other aquatic animal-sourced foods can play as part of a diverse and healthy nutrition portfolio.

Firstly, blue foods with relatively low environmental footprints that can be managed sustainably could be leveraged to reduce the climate impact of land-based agri-food systems while simultaneously enhancing the resilience of food provision. 

Farmed bivalves like oysters and mussels, for example, produce not only low levels of emissions but also require limited freshwater and land while providing 76 times more vitamin B12 and five times more iron than chicken. 

Thus, investing in the growth of unfed aquaculture for bivalves and seaweeds can increase the supply of high-value nutrition without jeopardising climate goals or increasing climate vulnerability.

Ocean food sources can fill a nutrient gap, too

Secondly, blue foods can also reduce human exposure to nutrient deficiencies, especially B12 and omega-3, which are lacking in many global diets. 

In some less developed settings, deficiencies stem from undernutrition, and in these settings, relatively small amounts of nutritionally dense blue foods can alleviate the detrimental effects of low B12 linked to cognitive function. 

This is particularly important in developing coastal regions and Small Island Developing States, where shifts away from traditional diets have been associated with increases in diet-related illnesses.

But blue foods can also fill a nutrient gap left by many modern diets. In many developed countries, over-consumption of red, and particularly processed meats, has led to a rise in non-communicable diseases.

A third and equally important nutritional role of blue foods is that they can offer a healthy protein alternative to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. 

The high nutrient content of many fish and shellfish also means that people could eat smaller quantities yet still meet their nutritional needs.

Billions depend on blue foods, but it might not be for everyone

Finally, blue foods have an integral role to play in upholding the cultures, diets, economies and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide. 

The sector already provides livelihoods for some 600 million people, including those in coastal communities and island nations, for whom there are few viable and accessible alternatives across food systems.

Some three billion people get vital nutrients and 205 types of animal protein from fish, seafood and aquatic plants. 

This contribution to food systems must both be safeguarded and sustainably scaled up, with the potential to avert up to 166 million cases of micronutrient deficiency.

Fishing and aquaculture are not without social or environmental impact, and some aquatic stocks have proven difficult to manage sustainably under current market pressures. 

Our analysis suggests that in some contexts, existing cultural preferences may mean that “leap-frogging” to largely plant-based diets may therefore be a more environmentally and socially desirable option.

A broader food portfolio for more sustainable diets

Blue foods are not, therefore, a panacea, but they have a lot to offer and deserve a place at the table when policymakers around the world discuss national food portfolios and identify salient ways to achieve healthy and sustainable diets for all. 

Sustainability certification schemes, inclusive dietary guidelines, and other initiatives to change food consumption behaviour can all contribute to transitioning to more sustainable diets by reinforcing the role of blue foods in diets around the world.

Investing in the diversity offered by blue foods is an investment in food system resilience, which in turn can bring a greater ability to cope with the certain uncertainties of tomorrow’s food production and trade.

In turbulent times, a broader food portfolio can help steer us towards calmer waters.

_Beatrice Crona is co-chair of the Blue Food Assessment, professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, and Executive Director of the Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere Program at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.
_

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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Once a little-known event for locals, this outback challenge attracts racing royalty

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In the early 1980s, when the Finke Desert Race was a fledgling off-road event, locals would show up on race day with a single hope: that their motorbike would make it there and back along 230 kilometres of unrefined dirt.  

Preparation was often minimal, sleep lacking, and sounds of revelry issued into the night. But it wasn’t of concern, because the Alice Springs riders were just there to make the dust fly.

“There used to be a pub at Finke,” long-time race president Antony Yoffa says.

“The competitors used to have a few ales at the end of a race and then go back the next day, and I’m sure that progressed throughout the 80s.”

As entries open for another Finke, almost 50 years since its inception, the game has changed.

Up to 1,000 riders and drivers are expected to line up at the 2023 Finke Desert Race.(ABC Alice Springs: Xavier Martin)

A bustling centre

Come the Queen’s (now King’s) Birthday long weekend, the small outback town swells to capacity with interstate riders and revheads, basking in the picturesque terrain.

Supermarket shelves are stripped bare, while those in the know collect their “Finke packs” from the local butcher, which they’ve ordered a month in advance.

Racing royalty from around the country set the standard for professionalism.

The likes of Toby Price, a eight-time Finke King of the Desert and two-time Dakar Rally champion, lines up on the same track as the rest of the field.

Two men in car racing suits and caps gesturing 'Number 1'.
Toby Price is an eight-time King of the Desert title in 2022, and set a new record for fastest time on four wheels with his navigator Jason Duncan.(ABC Alice Springs: Saskia Mabin)

More than 10,000 spectators skirt the winding, often corrugated track running along the old Ghan railway to the remote Aboriginal community Finke, also known as Apatula, which marks the halfway point of the two-day race.

Finke for the first time

After years of watching cars, bikes and buggies fly by from the sidelines, Alice Springs local Shane Garfath has thrown his hat into the ring for the first time.

“I’m definitely not podium-worthy, I’m an amateur as far as they come and purely in it for the fun,” he said.

“I’ve camped out and watched it for a long time now, but you get a bit itchy just watching.”

A man stands holding up his motorbike in a shed.
Alice Springs local Shane Garfath is competing in his first Finke Desert Race in 2023.(ABC Alice Springs: Lee Robinson)

Motor sports are not cheap. A new bike, suspension, and protective gear can run up a hefty five-figure bill. That’s before the race entrance fee of $900, a jump from the 2022 price.

But it’s a price Garfath is willing to pay.

“If I can get some sponsorship, that’d be great,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, if it’s coming out of my pocket, I’ll make it work.

“It comes down to wanting to do it.”

The final frontier

As the competition has developed, Finke has developed into a more highly regulated event, combating the Northern Territory’s often-quoted reputation as the nation’s wild west.

In 2021, after a fatal collision between a race vehicle and a group of spectators, the organisers’ hands were forced.

Sandy off-road track with police cars parked nearby.
The site along the Finke Desert Race track where Nigel Harris lost his life.(Supplied: Northern Territory Coroners Court)

Sweeping new safety measures were imposed, including spectator exclusion zones banning onlookers from particularly dangerous parts of the track.

A coronial inquest into the death of Nigel Harris will continue later this year.

The event’s maturation has also seen an evolution of competitors, with a growing number of older riders travelling from interstate for a bucket list trip.

An ageing line-up

For Michael Vroom, former Finke champion and now co-owner at Outback Motorcycle Adventures, the changing landscape has created a business opportunity.

He offers a package for fly-in riders, providing everything from the bike, to food, transport, and camping gear.

A middle-aged man sits in his motorbike workshop.
Mr Vroom says a growing number of older riders from interstate are forking out thousands of dollars to compete.(ABC Alice Springs: Lee Robinson)

“Finke has just continued to grow and grow over many years, to the point now where it’s more of a national event than then a local event,” he said.

“With that comes a lot of competitors, and it brings a lot of people to town.

“It’s not just the motorbike industry, it’s everything around it, and it’s simply a great event for the town.”

Vroom, who grew up with the desert race etched into his calendar, said despite its growth, enthusiasm for riding was waning in the younger generation.

Two men sitting in camp chairs behind flags that say
Spectators were told to stand at least 20 metres from the track, and to keep campsites and fixed structures 30 metres back.(ABC Alice Springs: Xavier Martin)

“That might be a reflection of the economy and all sorts of factors that go beyond just motorcycle riding,” he said.

“It’s expensive — simple as that. With the cost of living and the cost of the event going up, it’s a lot of money and it takes a lot of commitment to take part.

“Eventually, that will have an effect on those that can do the race.”

Looking to a dusty future

In 2026, Finke will mark its 50th anniversary milestone, with plans already underway to bring as many as possible of the 56 riders who competed in the inaugural event back to town.

While entry numbers have dipped slightly this year, President Antony Yoffa believes it will be a near-full field once again come June.

“We’ve almost plateaued with entry numbers in its current format,” he said.

A man on a motorbike taking part in Finke Desert Race.
The Finke Desert Race will return to the Red Centre on June 9-12, 2023.(Supplied: Ryan Scott Young)

“When you have both cars and bikes competing on the same day, daylight is an issue, plus there needs to be a certain amount of separation between each race.

“In the future, if we were to move to separate days, that may allow for more competitors.”

Mr Yoffa, who is serving in his 23rd year on the Finke committee, acknowledged the importance of maintaining local interest in the event for the next generation of revheads.

“This is Christmas for Alice Springs,” he said.

“As long as young Alice Springs riders continue to join the motorcycle club, buy motorbikes locally, and compete locally, the event will continue for some time to come, long after I’ve moved on.”

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Will Europe’s ban on Russian diesel hike global fuel prices?

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Europe is taking another big step toward cutting its energy ties with Russia, banning imports of diesel fuel and other products made from crude oil in Russian refineries.

The European Union ban takes effect 5 February following its embargo on coal and most oil from Russia. The 27-nation bloc is trying to sever its last uses of Russian energy and stop feeding the Kremlin’s war chest as the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine nears.

The newest ban has risks: Diesel prices have already jumped since the war started on 24 February last year, and they could rise again for the fuel that is key to the global economy.

“We’re leaving money in the road to provide our services,” said Hans-Dieter Sedelmeier of the family-run German bus and travel company Rast Reisen.

Most things people buy or eat is transported at some point by trucks, which mostly run on diesel. It also powers farm equipment, city buses and industrial equipment. The higher cost of diesel is built into the price of almost everything, helping push up inflation that has made life harder for people worldwide.

Will the embargo push up diesel prices?

That depends. Diesel, like crude oil, is sold globally, and Europe could look for new sources, such as the US, India or countries in the Middle East. If that goes smoothly, the impact on prices might be temporary and modest.

Europe has already cut Russian diesel imports almost in half, from 50% of total imports before the war to 27%. US suppliers have stepped up supplies to record levels, from 34,000 barrels a day at the start of 2022 to 237,000 barrels per day so far in January, according to S&P Global.

The EU’s top energy official, Kadri Simson, says markets have had time to adjust after the ban was announced in June. Europeans also appear to have stocked up on Russian diesel before the deadline, with imports rising last month.

There is a complicating factor: the Group of Seven major democracies are talking about imposing a price cap on Russian diesel heading to other countries, just as they did on Russian crude. As with oil, the idea is to keep Russian diesel flowing to world markets but reduce Moscow’s revenue.

If the cap works as advertised, global diesel flows should reshuffle, with Europe finding new suppliers and Russian diesel finding new customers, without a major loss of supply.

But it’s hard to say how the cap will work without knowing where the price will be set and whether Russia will retaliate by withholding shipments.

“When Russian exports are constrained, for whatever reason, that would of course cause some trouble in this whole reshuffle process,” said Hedi Grati, head of fuels and refining research for Europe at S&P Global Commodity Insights. 

“Europe would be competing with other big importers, and that would cause upward pressure on pricing.”

If the cap doesn’t block large amounts of Russian diesel, there might be “a short-lived price spike” as the market adjusts. For one, tankers would have a longer journey to Europe from the US, Middle East or India than from Russia’s Baltic Sea ports, stressing shipping capacity.

But massive new refining capacity is launching in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia later this year and in Oman in 2024. That “could further alleviate any pressure points from this divorce from Russia,” Grati said.

What could a diesel price cap accomplish?

The hope is to reproduce the effect of the oil price cap, which barred Western companies that largely control shipping services from handling Russian crude priced above $60 (€55) a barrel.

Russia says it won’t sell oil to countries observing the price ceiling, but the cap and falling demand from a slowing global economy has meant customers in China, India and elsewhere can buy Russian oil at steep discounts, cutting into the Kremlin’s revenue.

Boosted by more expensive crude, diesel prices rose to over €900 a ton last week from €735 a ton in early December. Diesel costs more than €36 per barrel above the crude used to make it.

One reason for the price hike was a late December storm in the US that disrupted refineries, said Barbara Lambrecht, an analyst at Commerzbank.

What happens if diesel gets more expensive?

Fuel prices have been a major factor behind painful inflation in Europe that has robbed consumers of purchasing power and slowed the economy.

Diesel prices at the pump have swung from €1.66 per litre to €2.14 per litre in the course of a year.

“That is a gigantic increase,” said Christopher Schuldes, the third generation of his family to run German trucking company Schuldes Spedition.

The company has 27 diesel trucks and 50 employees in the small town of Alsbach-Haehnlein between Frankfurt and Heidelberg in southwest Germany. It has already cut fuel costs by equipping trucks with efficient engines, ensuring trucks leave fully loaded and training employees in fuel-efficient driving.

“We did all that a long time ago, long before Russia invaded Ukraine,” Schuldes said. “There’s no more room for optimisation.”

To ease the extra diesel costs, the company tried negotiating higher prices with customers who have long-term contracts. Some agreed, some didn’t. Even if a contract allows prices to rise with diesel costs, there’s a two-month lag.

Regarding the embargo, “I am of two minds about it,” Schuldes said. “I have to see that the company is in good shape, and that our purchasing is as economical as possible. On the other hand — on the personal level — I say Russia must not be supported.”

Meanwhile, Rast Reisen, the bus and travel company near Freiburg im Breisgau in southwestern Germany, has seen diesel fuel rise from 12-15% of costs to 20-25%. Because 15 of its 25 buses are part of the regional public transport network, the company can’t automatically raise fares, and government increases so far are “a droplet on a hot stone,” said Sedelmeier, managing director for public transport.

Rast Reisen had to add a €10-15 diesel surcharge to trips to popular destinations like northern Germany’s island of Sylt or Croatia’s coast because prices spiked after catalogues were printed. 

Next year, prices for trips will simply be higher.

What could go wrong?

Energy markets are looking to China and wondering when the world’s second-largest economy will recover after the end of drastic COVID-19 restrictions. With low demand for fuel at home, the Chinese government let refineries ramp up their exports.

But if travel picks up in China, that diesel may disappear from the world market, raising prices as competition for fuel increases.



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