Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings - updated 11/5/24*

Look after our own first.

How’s that working out for you?

The issues which you’re only becoming interested in now existed long before immigration increased in this country. Increased immigration isn’t adding to the existence of those issues, nor is it exacerbating existing issues, it’s a completely separate thing.

That’s why for example in a town the size of Roscrea with a population of about 5,000, only about 150 of the locals turned out to protest- because people have more important things to be concerned with than freezing their balls off for one thing!

The population of Roscrea is 5000, of that 3000 would most likely be under 18 or over 70. Another 1000 are most likely migrants or IPA's which leaves 1000-1500k adult locals. If you get 10-15% of any population out protesting over any issue your doing very well, especially in this weather.

The protesters faces are all over the media and they are relentlessly being called far right and racist. That is more than enough pressure to stop most people protesting. Also, most people don't have time for such extended protests.

If we judge peoples interest in every issue by the amount of protests then we could say there is no housing crises, no health crises and thumbs up for the government.

@One eyed Jack It’s your own imagination is the reason you think increasing immigration immediately correlates with an increased demand on public services, but that’s just not the case as immigrants don’t actually tend to avail of public service.

That's utter nonsense schools are under pressure,and support services of course it correlates with increases in immigrants/Asylum seekers in area's in large numbers...

And just where is the Minister for Tourism hiding away with all this going on? Someone should do a street vox pop and ask punters who is the Minister for Tourism.

So in my rationale until the services are available and working properly we should not be undertaking mass immigration.

Your rationale is completely unrealistic though, because it conflicts with Government’s idea of getting value for the taxpayer, and that requires that they encourage immigration to provide the services which you point out need to be working properly before we can undertake mass immigration, even to provide any level of service to Irish citizens!

It’s not immigrants that need public services the most, and evidence of this has been demonstrated time and time again. While it suits you to claim we owe no-one nothing, the reality of the situation is that we do, because we’re not getting all that EU funding just to keep it to ourselves:

In March 2022, Ireland opted in to the 2021-2027 Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). Each Member State wishing to participate in the AMIF must produce a National Programme covering the main areas of the Fund. Ireland's national programme was drafted following consultations with relevant interests in the State, including non-governmental organisations, as well as with the European Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the overall administration of the Fund. Ireland’s 2021-2027 national programme can be found at the below link. 

With the European Commission’s approval of Ireland’s national AMIF programme, the AMIF 2021-2027 programme has a total allocation of €60.19 million, made up of €49.7 million in EU funding and €10.4 million in national and beneficiary co-financing.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/4ab75-amif-and-esf-funding/

I know, that's what is concerning. Maybe just a Tourism Minister for Dublin will suffice.

I didn’t claim Irish people are the problem in Ireland at all, I’m just pointing out that immigrants certainly aren’t the problem, nor are they adding to problems which already existed in this country before we were ever an attractive country for immigrants. The reason we became an attractive country for immigrants is due to many reasons which have nothing to do with Governments unwillingness to invest in public services or deflate the property market. Immigrants who weren’t even in the country certainly didn’t vote for the current Administration, nor do immigrants have any greater say in public policy than anyone else.

I imagine it must be scary to imagine there are people in Ireland who don’t share your views, but that’s more a product of your own insular views than anything it has to do with people who don’t share your opinions.

I didn’t say they had no impact on services though. They just don’t have the impact on services which would make any significant impact in the way you’re claiming would justify changing our policies regarding immigration. In reality the vast majority of users of public services in Ireland are Irish citizens. This idea you have that every immigrant is availing of just say for example healthcare, at the same rates as Irish citizens, just doesn’t stand up under examination:

The investigation of this paper reveals that immigrants born in countries other than the UK, and residing in Ireland, used GP and consultant-based healthcare at lower levels compared to native-born Irish people. Lower utilisation was not observed for UK-born respondents. This suggests that there may be forces which combine to influence the need, predisposition or access to healthcare amongst some groups of immigrants in Ireland. While the analysis has controlled for many of these predisposing, enabling and need differences between immigrants and natives, the wider literature points to other barriers in terms of discrimination, information gaps, informal networks and language, as well as cultural differences, that cannot be observed directly in the data available here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8715328/

The two hotels idea is not quite as daft as it sounds:

Need for emergency accommodation for asylum seekers = urgent

Need for a hotel for locals and tourists = not as urgent

Given that there is zero chance of the asylum idea being cancelled and Racket Hall reopening as a hotel, I'm not sure why people are thumbing their noses at the proposal. Something else that has been barely mentioned is that Racket Hall is 2.5 miles from Roscrea and well out into the countryside, whist the proposed new hotel is in Roscrea town centre.