Baby boom poses serious questions of our policy makers

According to the CSO, 2008 witnessed the highest number of births in Ireland since 1896. Ireland's rocketing birth rate is undoubtedly a cause of much joy in thousands of homes across the country. However, the revelation should have our leaders pondering carefully. As a society, there are many benefits from such a baby boom, not least as Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said this week, the positive impact on pensions. In the future, the growing number of young workers will help to carry the pension burden of an ageing workforce. In less concrete financial terms, there's also the sense of energy and community that comes with a rise in the number of children in society. However, the rising young population also brings with it serious concerns for the future. In the immediate term, there's the increasing pressure on our maternity hospitals and paediatric services at a time when health services are being cut to the bone. Then there's the issue of whether sufficient educational and childcare places will be available to cater for the growing school-going population of the next few years. A number of years ago, the Department of Education established a special unit to analyse population trends around the country to enable it to intervene to provide extra school places where required. However, the economic downturn has rendered such a unit purely an information-gathering exercise as school building plans have been hit by the cutbacks. Ironically, help may be easily at hand in the shape of the recession. In fact, one social science expert was quoted as suggesting that the higher birth rate could be attributed to the feelgood factor of the economic boom. Prof Tony Fahey, head of UCD's school of applied social science, suggested the increased birth rate during the boom seemed to be linked with a general sense of optimism over what the future held. Immediate concerns such as childcare costs did not seem to matter so much. However, it could be argued that throughout 2008 the extent of the recession was well-known in Ireland, but people continued to choose the have children. Whatever, the truth of the situation, it's time our policy makers looked long and hard at how to cater for those thousands of individual bundles of joy.