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

Just to clarify, he appears to be speaking about asylum seekers (0.25 to 1.05), not about EU or non-EU migrant workers or other people arriving via legal routes. Anyone reading the headlines might be given the impression he was speaking about all immigration to the country.

JIM O'Callaghan was pretty tough talking when he came into the role but to date has delivered literally nothing

The Vietnamese coming into the mix light Turkish delights not sure why they are here

Ukraine recently, and on my opinion unwisely, ended the ban on 18-21 year olds emigrating.

However I would point out that the minimum conscription age in Ukraine is 25. Until late last year it was 27.

Interesting discussion on Today with Pat Kenny this morning on Newstalk.

Despite the labour shortage, Irish construction workers are emigrating.

That calls into question how much of this is actually a labour shortage, and how much of it is just existing workers emigrating to Australia, United States (even now).

One of the points made on the show was that some of it is people wanting to "see the world" at their age, and for some its done because they want to build things that are not being built in Ireland. Also the cost of living here.

I'm wondering does this come back again to our restrictive planning system. Does it limit learning different kinds of construction, because of the focus on low density housing?

But if the cost of living is bad for Irish workers, whats it like for someone from the developing world?

As someone who has lived in Oz, no matter how things are in Ireland it will always be an extremely attractive place for Irish professionals to move to. The weather and access to some of the most amazing natural beauty and beaches is second to none.

Nearly every doctor seems to move there for a stint even though they're paid an awful lot here, most of them come back thankfully.

It's just an amazing country but most Irish people seem to do a few years and come back, it's very far away from family.

That's the face of a man who's party took the centre-right/right vote for granted and might have just lost it.

Trump cutting annual refugees from about 125k down to 7k and mostly white south Africans who'd you'd imagine will contribute and assimilate well to American values.

We've about 60k hotel beds in Ireland. Just saying maybe we should take half for the good of the world?

This is what happens when so much of Labour, SDs, now the Greens, PBP et al don’t actually care about practical realities - it’s all just a big game of “who’s the purest of them all?”

They’re full of it - Holly Cairns spoke in support of those protesting in Clare after Asylum seekers were dumped in their town and criticised the government’s handling of the Asylum issue. She was of course then excoriated for wrongspeak by the usual suspects and has parroted the party line ever since.

I note none of these apparent humanitarians have said anything about the horrible atrocities that have been going on in Sudan for some time now. It’s not trendy enough yet I suppose. As the Gaza crisis winds down these #ISupportTheCurrentThing dolts will eventually suddenly realise that Sudan is now actually the most important thing in the world to them.

Trump set to cap refugee numbers at 7500 next year. What'll we have this year between Ukrainians n asylum seekers - 30k +? They've a population of 340 million , we 5.5 million!

I have a friend who was in a similar position after eviction. Took 6 months to hear back from DSP and they offered her a place in a hostel for her and her 2 young kids in the city center full of junkies. She chose to sleep on a friends couch/floor until she found somewhere available to rent.

I see MM has joined the dark side of the far right.