Highest salary Irish young people expect to earn in their lifetime is €66,400

Purple CV, a leading CV-writing service, asked 3,000 people aged between 18 and 24 across Ireland and the UK about their career aspirations.

The survey revealed that €66,478 is the highest salary that the average young person in Ireland expects they will earn - ever.

This is 28pc higher than the average salary of €51,676.

Meanwhile, young people in Northern Ireland have lower salary expectations, hoping to earn a lifetime best salary of £43,779 (approximately €50,419).

And over in the UK, salary expectations are highest in London at £50,327 (€58,006) and lowest in the North East at £37,369 (43,071).

The survey comes as Ireland faces a major cost of living crisis as the price of gas and energy soar.

Dundalk TD Ruairí Ó Murchú said that tackling the crisis “must be the government’s number one priority” when the Dáil returns tomorrow.

He said: “Towards the end of the summer, it was becoming clear that people are becoming alarmed by what they will have to deal with this winter.

“There are an increasing number of people coming into my constituency office seeking help with bills through exceptional needs payments from the Department of Social Protection.”

“From talking to people while canvassing over the last few weeks, the number one topic is energy costs and how people, particularly those on low or fixed incomes like pensioners, are going to be able to afford the huge increases.”

He continued: “When the Dáil returns, we will then be two weeks out from the budget and the government simply has no choice – in the jaws of a cost of living crisis not seen for decades, they have to do everything in their power to ensure that families are protected from the worst ravages of price hikes.

“The government has been stagnant over the summer. They have not done enough to ease the pain for families and small businesses.

“Everything has to be used from price reduction factors, better planning and the speeding up of renewables delivery and looking at consumption reduction, particularly for businesses, where possible.”