Immigration and Ireland - MEGATHREAD *Mod Note Added 02/09/25*

sekiro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124022595#Comment_124022595

I think it's pretty reasonable to ask exactly what the upper limit might be.

If we set a limit at, lets say, 10 million then that's leaving many many millions of people behind in poverty and war. So we only reward those who can actually make it over here and once a certain number get through the door then that door would eventually need to close.

How is it even good for migrants themselves if we are going to put more an more pressure on to the systems that they need.

People always go on about Irish not being able to get homes, places in schools or access to healthcare but this affects people arriving here also.

Again, it comes down to common sense. If we struggle to accommodate 80,000 new arrivals this year then we're going to struggle even harder to accommodate 100,000 next year and 120,000 the year after that at some point it harms absolutely everyone to keep going like this.

phater phagan

Ireland has:

A population of only about 5.3 million.

One of the fastest population growth rates in Europe.

A limited housing stock and persistent housing crisis.

Strained public services (GP access, schools, transport).

Rural areas with declining populations but limited job availability.

Because Ireland is small and already dealing with structural constraints, even moderate increases in population have stronger effects than they might in larger countries like France, Germany, or the UK.

DebDynamite

In the past 2 years I've visited Paris, Madrid, Venice, Rome, Amsterdam... all cities in counties which are having issues with immigration and who have either voted in a right wing government, or have a right wing party riding high in the polls. I never would've believed it until I was there, but they appear to have way less immigration than we have here in Dublin. You walk down the streets and it's mainly the citizens of that country. Same in hotels, restaurants, shops, public transport - it's mainly natives. Yes, in terms of actual numbers they have a lot more than us, but Ireland just doesn't have the population to absorb the amount of immigration we have here.

Part of the charm for me of going on city breaks to these cities is observing how the locals live and go about their business, how they dress, how they communicate. Sadly for anyone visiting Dublin, this is disappearing at an alarming rate, and we're probably only in the early stages of our immigration experience (it's really only become very noticeable for me since Covid). I feel like we've sold our soul for the sake of an economy, and we will come to regret it in a big way. It's not even like growing the economy has given us a better lifestyle or standard of living either - far from it.

Ozymandius2011

If we are going to criticise shortages of housing, hospital beds, hospital waiting times, then we have to accept that these things are related to the growth of the population as well as supply. As the natural increase is about 19,400, it follows that the vast majority of the population increase is immigration.

Minister Jim O'Callaghan made a good point about family reunification, that a lot of it are people who become dependent on the State. The elderly and children for example.

They are not going to be paying taxes, so are a net cost to the State.

I agree with the plan to deny naturalisation to someone who has spent most of their time here not working. We need to build incentives into the system for immigrants to find jobs so that the State can recoup in taxes what we are spending on asylum.

Excluding Corporation Tax, Ireland has a deficit of €14 bn.