Such is the pressure to make it financially that many Irish parents have become virtual workaholics. "For this god people are sacrificing their children, their health and even their own lives," the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Dr Trevor Morrow, has said.
Why is it that "according to a report by the Royal College of Surgeons, 'a terminally-ill patient has a better quality of life than many in managerial positions'," he asked.
"Think of the pressure on families as mums and dads weave their way through gridlock Dublin traffic to get their offspring to creches and schools before beginning a day of work in order to pay off their own debts and satisfy the companies' aspirations for 'the bottom line'."
Recalling Éamon de Valera's "comely maidens" speech from St Patrick's Day 1943, he said: "it has often been quoted with derision as a premodern vision for Ireland. Today, with the purgatory that is the life of many, it sounds like heaven."
Dr Morrow, pastor to the Presbyterian congregation at Lucan, was speaking in Dublin last night where he delivered the second annual CS Lewis lecture on the topic Money, Sex and New Technology: an Examination of Ireland's Cultural Obsessions.
He said: "and is it not ironic that in the year in which we remember William Wilberforce's resistance to the economic arguments to keep slavery, we argue the pros and cons of immigration on the basis of the financial benefits to our GNP?"
He continued: "should it not cause us some alarm that the educational curriculum at secondary and tertiary level, rather than being concerned with knowledge and wisdom in science and the humanities, is increasingly governed by our economic needs for the future? Time and time again, research had shown that any happiness produced by an increased standard of living is more than offset by a drop in the quality of relationships."
He referred to a New Scientist survey which found that in Britain, "even though incomes have tripled since the 1950s, the number of people who have described themselves as 'very happy' has dropped dramatically from 57 per cent to 36 per cent".
Emphasising that no one was pleading "for a return to days of poverty when our primary export was people", he said: "nevertheless, we need to critique the social implications of such rapid wealth creation and consumerism".
He called for "a new mindset with regard to wealth". Is it to be used "simply for the accumulation of more wealth or to be used in the endless pursuit of happiness through the purchase of commodities?"
Three areas in particular should be our focus.
"The first is the creation of what is beautiful. Writers, artists, musicians, film-makers, architects, painters and all who enable us to experience mystery and cause us to hear 'the rumour of angels' need to be a priority, not because they are economically beneficial but because in creativity they are giving wonder and causing us to taste life."
The second "is the pursuit of justice . . . the moral imperative to seek the right for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society."
The third was the encouragement of relationships through which our citizens learn to give and to receive.
"Individualism and lack of social and civic engagement is a direct correlate to our economic advance."
