(originally https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/world/europe/ireland-hous...)
Allow me to further point out that 'just live with your parents' requires that your parents be close to your job. However the lion's share of jobs (worth having) are in Dublin. Therefore if you're not from Dublin you don't get the free parents rent, you pay the same $3k that you would rather pay as a mortgage or save as as downpayment, and are then outcompeted by those who were able to avail of the benefit.
Therefore what we're seeing is a total destruction of wealth for anyone outside of Dublin.
Nevermind the oft maligned truth that your ability to pay €X in monthly rent is insufficent evidence of your ability to pay €0.8X in a mortgage thanks to the new rules brought in after the previous generation a) got their houses and b) ruined everything with bailout debt.
The social contract has not been completely ruptured. I checked last week.
But in all seriousness in response to your question, why respond at all, the answer I would argue is it is super important to respond. If you don't respond you leave exaggerated statements unchallenged and then people just ingest them without using any critical thinking. There are tons of examples of it happening in the US news media and it does change people's perspectives of what is happening in the world. If left unchallenged a casual reader would just assume that the sky was falling down in Ireland which couldnt' be further from the truth.
I used humor in my response. My use of a joke highlighted the absurdity and overblown nature of the original commenters statement and made a reader think exactly what does someone mean by "path to having a family". In actual fact, other people on this page are claiming it's too easy to have a family in Ireland what with all the free housing and welfare. So I'm pointing out the absurdity of the position, especially when it's just blasted out as fact without anything to back it up.