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

I just don't see a 'glaring immigration problem' to be honest, at least not in respect of IPAs.

We're actually talking about a relatively very small group of people coming here over the last twenty years. I estimate there's probably about 80-120k living here who've come through this route.

As I believe was the case prior to the last economic crash, I think an inordinate amount of ire is being directed towards this group, taking focus from more important issues around health and housing.

I based that estimate on the number of arrivals over the last twenty years (140k), the number of deportations, most recent figures for the number of refugees living in the state, and the numbers who applied for the asylum amnesty.

But of course it's more accurate to talk about 'swathes of foreign men'.

As I've said previously I do think how we accommodate asylum seekers is handled very poorly. Housing and services in general are in a terrible state, to which IPAs have had very little impact. Thanks in no small part to our anti-immigration movement I expect to see little change in that regard over the next five years. Opposition to the current government has become fractured and voters appear to be shifting to the center, to counter the rise in extremism and violence associated with anti-immigration sentiments and rhetoric.

I haven't been proven wrong on multiple occasions when stating statistics. I made a very minor error on quoting number of arrivals from twenty years ago which I immediately acknowledged.

As for all this talk about 'swathes' of men, 'safe' countries, vetting, keeping similar cultures together, welfare tourism etc, etc, etc. All it's doing is causing division and driving people towards the political status quo. We're now most likely looking at five more years of little or no change in how we provide services and manage housing. Thanks.

It's a bit of a glass half full, half empty question. Maybe not.

The sheer volume of headlines related to not enough this and not enough that, from staff to prisons to housing to teachers to creches to schools to transport and everything else in between is eye-catching, to say the least.

My own personal opinion is that were this under different circumstances, let's say the 1990's for example, then you really would be left with bewilderment.

However, with the rapid and voluminous population increase of recent times, a literal record population since the inception of the Republic, I can't help but come to the conclusion that what we are witnessing in real time is the effect of overpopulation.

It doesn't take much to overpopulate a "habitat", humans or animals or microorganisms, all the same. Consider that just the addition of one or two extra people into most people's homes would cause chaos. Just so for a country at scale.

When a phenomenon can be readily and accurately described in just one word, rather than 20 purportedly unrelated mini phenomenon, surely the universal descriptor is most knowledgeable and informative?

On the otherhand, the government seem to be sitting a on a pile of money with next to nothing to show for it. Which is equally bizarre.

"Ireland is full" is a phrase that has been turned into some kind of political statement and is practically useless for discussion now. Overpopulation on the other hand is an umbrella term for a set of genuine statistics.

There is obviously ideological agenda at play in this situation and quite simply that shouldnt be the case. This is practically a scientific issue, it is at least logistical. If we could focus on genuine evidence and statistics in a discussion it could be very interesting.

They just keep coming

The weather.

Roderics department should be renamed the Dept Of Disintegration

Wonder who is actually paying for this

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Fair play to him for speaking up

David McWilliams has written a lot of articles about this in the last year. But he suggests the main problem is not immigration or a growing population, but that Irish governments in general are terrible at long term planning and building infrastructure.

To identify immigration as the problem would be missing the point - even without it, Irish governments would still be useless at building infrastructure, housing, transport links and so on (witness the children's hospital fiasco and its costs).

You had me right up until 'We all know'

You'd be correct, over 1 million Palestinians have Jordanian citizenship so can travel on the passport… though that would go missing when they arrive here..

I'm not so sure our asylum system, and it's European counterparts, is all that much about humanitarian principles as it is about trying to find practical solutions for all the people who are going to come here with or without it.

As for the huge profits being made from accommodation, to me that's just these government parties doing what they've done for decades, turning to often dysfunctional private markets.

A merry go round of shitness