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

The numbers have increased already, as the Minister reported to Cabinet this week.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/1011/1537971-ukraine-temporary-protection/

So the chartered flights to deport illegal individuals back to Georgia was a waste of time and tax payers money? 

The first flight in late February 2025 removed 32 people, followed by a second flight in May 2025 that removed 39 people. The cost for a single chartered flight to deport people to Georgia was €102,476 in February 2025. More recent reports indicate that the total cost of deportation flights, including a one-way flight to Georgia in May 2025, has reached over €1 million for the year

I will firstly have to push back on the suggestion that this is a right wing idea - prominent moderate economists such as Dan O’Brien, David McWilliams etc have made this same point. Not to mention we can see the success archived in this area in Denmark under the leadership of their left wing government and policies. Simple application of the laws of supply and demand is not right wing. So let’s park any invocations of the right wing bogeyman there please.

I’m a believer of don’t let perfect be the enemy of good - if we can reduce numbers of non essential non EU people, bogus asylum seekers then that will be a good starting point in reducing non essential demand and pressure on services

Finally in terms of competition for that small supply once again it is not all or nothing. It’s not either they can buy houses on arrival or be expelled. There are a whole host of measures available to us that can moderate the issues that come with increasing numbers.
Lots of other countries, many left wing led I might add, have measures such as higher taxes on house purchases for non EU non citizens, or minimum residency requirements before you are eligible to purchase property etc etc etc i.e. we can restrict migrants demand for buying properties without necessarily going as far as blocking them from the country

The source for the asylum applicants is

https://x.com/jlpobrien

I must download the data myself.

The very low numbers deported are widely publicised.

Think the main issue where IPAS is concerned is that we have to put these people up for months and provide everything else at a cost of over 100K per head and in the end the majority of them aren’t even genuine i.e. it’s largely a massive waste of public funds that should be diverted to things that actually benefit the public

Put them up for years not months given it can take 18 months for a case to be heard and then countless appeals

Well, far from invoking right wing bogeymen — I would fall into the left-leaning centrist side of things and I believe immigration should be reduced. Where I differ from others on here is the extent to which I believe it to be the actual key issue at the heart of socioeconomic or cultural problems or the extent to which reducing migration actually materially improves life in Ireland. It's all well and good saying "don't let perfect be the enemy of good" — but you have to have an appropriate understanding of the good you are trying to achieve. Cutting the number of bogus asylum seekers is something we should strive to do and it presents benefits, that's undeniable, but one thing it's not going to do is make much of a dent population-wise.

You also mention cutting the number of "non-essential" people but I am unsure what you mean by this term. Are we only referring to healthcare and construction as being essential, or what else? How are you defining essentialness and how do migrant workers in tech, professional services, hospitality etc figure into that? I know you mentioned delivery drivers but what other groups are you talking about limiting that represent a large enough cohort to actually slow population growth and materially decrease demand and prices?

As for restricting migrants from buying within 5 years, what would this achieve in Ireland in your view? Do you think it would impact on purchases by investors? It possibly would, but there's an altogether more straightforward way of doing that (ie, just prevent investors for acquiring property to the levels they do now). And why is the focus on Danish policies always focused on migration — they also have supply side measures we could employ . .

This is my suggestion to reduce immigration and ease the pressure on accomm:

(1) process current AS fast, within a week, and remove in daily flights. The aim here is to reduce both the stock and the inbound flow.

(2) remove 50% of UKR people now, and 50% at end of war

[allow 5,000 to 10,000 UKR to stay subject to conditions: they must work in new house building for ten years, and they can never claim social assistance]

The aim of (1) and (2) is to remove 100,000 people from the country

(3) freeze all study visas for five to ten years - zero new inbound flow

[this would have serious consequences for many 3rd level HEI]

(4) no change to work visas, so no impact on healthcare or ICT sectors

(5) max 1,000 programme refugees per year

The number changes each year but over the years 80% is a percentage that get to stay .

Recently 80% fail on first application , 2/3 of asylum seekers come through the UK which has been the case over the years . They are usually visa overstayers ,come by irregular means or have made asylum claims in the UK .

Boot out anyone who has not arrived through the formal international protection system. And revoke citizenship and passports from anyone whose returned home for vacation to the place they fled from in terror.

Im curious as to how the immigration staff verify the correct age of AS who say they are under 18.

Because it looks to me like we just take them at their word.

Can anyone put an honest coherent argument together as to how this illegal immigration madness is benefitting the people of Ireland in any way ?

And before someone chimes in with the usual nonsense of our health service would collapse etc etc , I am not talking about people on work visas

Just what exactly do the government or the left wing supporters think the thousands of Muslim men ( all men now which is just brushed under the carpet ) living in refugee centres will ever bring to this country ?

We are importing the very worst and it’s costing us billions , that’s me and you paying for this nonsense . They will stay here and leech for as long as they can , drive our taxes up to pay for their healthcare and retirement because they absolutely won’t be working .

We have destroyed our country , plain and simple