Immigration and Ireland - MEGATHREAD *Read OP for mod warnings before posting*

This was and still is a very interesting and insightful read on this utter shambles, which is from a very reputable media outlet imo.

https://archive.is/EfdEL

It shows a rough timeline of the situation.

No one knows what Roderic O’Gorman, the integration minister, was thinking when he began tweeting about his plans to reform the immigration system in early 2021 but staff at the International Protection Office (IPO) were aghast.

Months later O’Gorman’s colleague, Helen McEntee, announced an amnesty that allowed illegal migrants to gain residency if they came forward. How this was going to work was also unclear but there were concerns that it too would attract a new wave of migrants who might travel here and apply for asylum.

Now if that's not an 'Ireland is open for business' call, I don't know what is

I've seen the correlation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine proper and the rise in IPAS applicants made before in a way that suggests that both are connected - It's absolute rubbish of course. People in Nigeria, Pakistan, Algeria etc etc, didn't go - 'OMG Russia have invaded Ukraine, we must get to Ireland, it's the only place in the world where we can go for safety'

It's a pure coincidence of timing. Rodders tweets weren't acted on as covid flight restrictions were still in place. These restrictions eased at the start of 2022 and our IPAS friends, who had a year to plan and research the best place to go, started on their journey's for a better life and Ireland looked really good - It's as simple as that

I hope we don't get into a back and forth about the tweets as the article above pretty much nails the fact that they were indeed a massive part of the problem.

I'll quote this again -

…staff at the International Protection Office (IPO) were aghast. [at the tweets]

Even Al Jazeera picked up on it a few days after they went out - Well done Roderic

Under the new proposal, applicants will be housed in state-run reception centres for four months before those still waiting for a decision to be made will be moved to own-door or own-room accommodation such as houses or apartments.

On the financial side - There are two years (20/21) where there were little to no arriving IPA going into the system, so dividing a total spend over 6 years x 6 is wrong

On the article linked at the top - There was nothing to stop The IT, RTE, VM, Newstalk etc picking up on this and doing similar reports and articles, but they declined for some undetermined reason…

I'm confused as to why anyone would argue that the spend on dealing with this situation has been anything but an enormous drain on our national resources.

We're doing everyone a disservice currently, the citizens in need in the country and those arriving are all getting a raw deal, nobody wins here except greedy unscrupulous business and property owners taking advantage of the situation to make a quick buck.

The whole perception of this conversation is skewed via the filter of identity politics to the point where people refuse to see reason.

There are glaringly obvious facts relating to this situation that we need to get to grips with before we can start digging ourselves out of this hole we're in, and that doesn't just relate to the immigration issue, that relates to all the major issues affecting this country most notably the accommodation problem which whether you want to admit it or not is entwined in a symbiotic relationship with the immigration issue and we need to collectively cop on and approach this whole issue from a different perspective going forward if we're ever going to see any of this begin to make sense.

Voters who are strongly against the current policy could easily fall into the "positive" 45% category.

For example, I believe immigration has benefited Ireland on the whole. Yet I also believe the government has caused irreversible damage by encouraging the abuse of the IP system. I believe the IPAS system is corrupt. The likes of McEntee and O'Gorman sicken me. However, I don't think that immigration is a negative "in general".

If someone of my opinion can fit into the "positive" category, then it's not very well phrased. It's also worth noting that immigration came up as more important than climate change,childcare, transport.

People voted for FF/FG in spite of their immigration policy rather than because of it.

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/11/30/housing-and-homelessness-biggest-issue-for-voters-exit-poll-shows/

Is immigration a positive negative or makes no difference.

41% said negative

45% said positive

41% must be far right hateful racists so eh?

It's not in their top two doesn't mean it doesn't impact it they don't have an opinion.

What does increasing housing demand do? What does increasing demand for social housing do, or homeless places?

Your are arguing immigration was a major issue.

Then you end your post by saying voters completely ignored this issue when they chose FF/fg as government.

This was a major issue for voters that in no way affected who they voted for.

Hmmm doesn't sound like an issue for voters so.

So bigly an issue. The biggest of issues. All the voters tell me this is the biggest issue.

Where on this thread is there a call to expel all immigrants and their children?

You said

This thread is full of calls to expel all immigrants and that includes their children born here.

This thread is not full of what you claim. I had a look back on page 2 and can't see the quote you refer to either.

The mods delete all the openly racist comments. They deleted the main kampf quote.

They did not delete my comment quoting it.

I'll quote my post now so you can verify.

That post was thanked many times before deletion, which to me indicates support from other posters for that position.

Other openly racist countries are similarly supported before not deletion.

I've no particular thoughts about O'Gorman's tweets one way or the other, but as you say, those tweets were issued in the middle of the lockdown and when people couldn't even move to Ireland. It was a full two years later (mid 2023) when the anti-immigration lobby started talking retrospectively about the tweets (in 2021, they were much more preoccupied with the lockdown itself and vaccines and holding protests against the government……being anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine was their big bugbear at that point, not immigration).

I've just looked at that in situ: as you say, no comment so how can you tell what the poster meant exactly? Could have been a sarcastic comment on anti immigration/anti foreigner posts, or meant as a warning etc.

Certainly from a quick look at the poster's posting history, I can't see anything that marks him out as a racist, never mind one who is on the neo Nazi extreme fringe. Even on this thread, his few other posts don't fit that description. Elsewhere he has called Trump and Farage conmen.

From the little I've seen, I'd say he might be a SF supporter - who are more of an open borders party (though he may well not be, I suppose).

So basically for "full of" such posts, you can in fact cite one posted that was posted without comment by a poster with no history of posting anti-foreigner posts.

Over stating your case a tad - no?

No, I there is no breakdown of literacy rates of AS in Ireland (if they were any higher I'm sure the NGOs would be very keen to release the numbers) but the article I posted relates to the UK. According to our former hugely incompetent minister for justice 90% of our AS in 2024 came from the UK. So 40% of 90% are illiterate.

It show that 94% of people don't see immigration as the major issue. The parties who focused on it were routed. A pretty unambiguous message from the public.

The figures you posted do NOT come from the UK. They come from a UNESCO report referring to global figures on refugees, IDPs (Internally Displaced People) and migrants. Thus they include info on people moving within countries owing to war (Sudan, Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, etc). They also include internal migrants in peaceful countries moving from rural areas to cities for work.

UNESCO do not provide figures on the literacy rates of asylum seekers. You are making a false claim on the literacy of asylum seekers arriving in both the UK and ROI.

Im not sure why you're quoting this to me? There is nothing different to anything I have already told you in my post.

I don't understand your point about the border with Northern Ireland? People claim asylum at the IPO.