Immigration and Ireland - MEGATHREAD *Mod Note Added 14/08/25*

Look at how the Soc Dems, and especially Gannon reacted over the Ellie Kisyombe scandal. For those that don't remember Gannon stood foursquare behind her candidacy in the 2019 local elections despite it turning out that she came here on a student visa, went to the UK to claim asylum, was arrested there and returned here claiming asylum here.

The Soc Dems put her forward for election and when it turns out that she lied they defended her to the hilt, until it all ended in tears. The bould Ellie then turned on the party leadership and accused them of disrupting her election campaign!

She was subsequently granted leave to stay and then went back to Malawi on holiday. From the Indo,

"Soon after her unsuccessful campaign, Ellie gained residency, which enabled her to make her first trip back to Malawi in years."

So I agree with you totally about Labour and the Soc Dems on immigration. The situation is too serious for student union politics.

Six years ago is not long ago really. Not exactly ancient history. Why shouldn’t someone discuss a politicians poor decisions on this topic

Discuss away if you feel it’s relevant

How is an example of how the Soc Dems and Gannon not to be trusted on this topic not relevant?

You’re trying to shut down a discussion on the Soc Dems and immigration with Malachy Steenson whataboutery

He isn't relevant, I haven't seen anyone mentioning him only you and most people outside Dublin have no idea who he is .

I'd be fairly hard right in my opinions on immigration and I never heard of him.

Gannon on the other hand is a regular on TV and is well known on social media and his party made fools of themselves in that election campaign.

On a slightly different topic, I like the way the press spins things in that article:

"Soon after her unsuccessful campaign, Ellie gained residency, which enabled her to make her first trip back to Malawi in years."

This makes it seem like the State held her hostage in Ireland when in fact she was always free to return to Malawi.

Appreciate this is a snippet but going by the video I don't really get the point here. McGinley says the country is awash with money which — without being able to read her mind — I would have taken to mean a reference to Ireland's budget surplus. This would not exactly be a non-factual statement. Saying that we are "one of the most broke countries in the world" is hyperbole, to put it mildly.

I'm also kind of tired of people like McGuirk making references to people he doesn't agree with having no mandate or being out of touch with the opinions of the people, while seemingly (and arrogantly) appearing to assume that his views are representative and here's an opinion poll to prove it.

There is a whole plurality of views within a 70% of people who agree with the bald assertion that immigration has been too high, from people who are all-out alarmists and believe migration is the death of Ireland — to others (like myself) who would probably say immigration, particularly in recent years the spike in IPA entrants, has been too high but with acknowledgement of the difficulty of addressing some of the issues underpinning it and without feeling that alarmism or vilifying politicians / migrants / NGOs is a productive way forward for finding positive solutions and visions for the future.

Well McGuirk wasnt wrong about the opinion polls he mentioned and even Cuddihy agreed that when asked 73% of people in those polls said we were taking in too many AS.

McGuirk was also right when he said she is working for a government funded NGO.

Look it's obvious you don't like him and that's fair enough and sometimes he gets it wrong but he was spot on in everything he said last night.

Yes, but it's the refusal by these commentators on all sides to really drill down into what these figures mean and the pitfalls of making broad assumptions which is the problem. Even Varadkar said immigration has risen too rapidly in Ireland so that opinion in isolation would put him within that camp — yet I'm not sure many on here would align themselves with Leo on the topic.

One can say that we took too many AS while also saying that the advent of a European war, the release of the Covid travel restriction bottleneck, and our general lack of prior experience in handling a large influx of refugees placed us in a difficult position that was never going to be easy to handle. One can say immigration has been too high while also acknowledging that there are complicated nuanced factors driving it and not the favoured narratives on here that it's all down to the fact that the people running the country are just not as intelligent or sensible or patriotic or considerate of Ireland's wellbeing than the people who write on this thread.

But saying those things would, in an opinion survey, lump everyone broadly under the one opinion.

If the country is awash with money they should lower taxes, not give it to some chancer who came from Tunisia in a dinghy.

Do you mean the Clonskeagh one?

The Irish Times etc did have reports of a dispute in relation to control of the mosque and its subsequent temporary closure.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/05/28/dispute-over-control-of-clonskeagh-islamic-centre-reaches-high-court/

That's the one. A radicalised wing trying to take over according to one senior fella there. Tumbleweed from our journalists.

All of them, every single last one but as its an immigration thread, lets start with the Irish refugee council. The term ngo should be scraped and a much better and more transparent system put in place. They should go back to being charities and not a mechanism to lobby government and civil servants to change policy, while feeding at the trough of public finances and outside influencers. The current system is bloated, with too much duplicity and is seen as a gravy train for a certain group of people to feather their nests on the pretense that they are important and saving the world.