Sir, – The decreasing number of children and increasing proportion of older adults in the latest demographic data from the CSO points to potential social and political instability sooner rather than later (“Population rises to 5.5m but the number of births continues to decline,” August 24th). Based on the CSO data, we are moving from having four adult workers per retiree in 2026, to only two adult-age taxpayers per retiree by 2050. This level of dependency has never happened before.Ireland faces the fastest rate of decline in workers than any other European country. Every child born today will be asked to do more economically to support the older members of society. Historic pride in our relatively large population of children fostered a blase attitude to the care of our most precious resource. This is regrettable.We have treated children as endlessly numerous and dispensable, tolerating interminable waiting lists for mental health and disability services, chaotic childcare provision, the underfunding of school places, and the repeated postponing of measures to address child poverty. In just a couple of decades we will then ask the same children to step up and fund health and social care for the adults who voted in and supported a government that failed to ensure that children had the conditions they needed to thrive.The philosopher John Locke predicted a fracturing of the social contract when a government did not keep their bargain with taxpayers, assigning citizens a moral “right to revolution” when the state fails to provide. We have gone further than Locke ever anticipated, breaking the social contract with future generations of taxpayers by appeasing the immediate, fickle demands of the electorate.It would not be surprising if a child born today revolted against the obligation to fund elder care for the very adults that looked the other way and let them down. – Yours, etc,DR SUZANNE CROWE,Consultant in paediatric intensive care,Ranelagh,Dublin 6.