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

There are hardly any asylum seekers in tents these days (the Athlone tent centre has just been closed down). Even the people in tents have access to a huge range of services such as professional catering, cleaning, laundry, transport, etc.

That said, I dont like the "solution" of charging occupants for IPAS accommodation. Even the highest proposed rate wouldn't cover costs and chances are most occupants will be charged a lesser amount. In return for a small fee we're creating a sense that they're tenants and that this emergency accommodation is a social housing solution only available to those who have arrived by breaking the law.

It discriminates against everyone else who can't find or afford accommodation. If you're going to create subsidised hostels, then legal citizens should have the option to use them. I'm sure plenty of students out there who would be glad of a bed near their university, for example, with food, laundry, Wifi and recreation areas.

There are also thousands of people with refugee status living in IPAS centres. They should not be charged rent. They should be moved out and dealt with by homeless services and the NGOs that want open borders. We need to stop confusing systems.

interesting to see how Matt Carthy deals with immigration on VM1 tonight. Shinners doing their damnedest to stay out of the current war of words . Here’s a lengthy journal article about the latest exchanges and not a peep out of sf. https://www.thejournal.ie/simon-harris-migration-comments-6864311-Nov2025/

That says it all...that the housing refugee industry is now more lucrative than the drugs industry!

I dont favour deporting legal immigrants. I do support more of an emphasis on upskilling and less on work permits. The low unemployment rate has to be seen in the context of a larger population, which means that in absolute numbers, its not as low as it may seem. There are also many working-poor, and competition for low skilled labour does not help. It is true that without existing migrant workers, the nursing home system would collapse. Almost all the workers in my local nursing home are from developing world.

But I support summary deportation of those not entitled to be here. The rigmarole about judicial reviews has to stop.

Also I think RTEs coverage of this issue is biased.

When you look over to the likes of England i reckon deporting Legal Immigrants is the rational decision. Would not want to end up like them. Our high trust society has already slid - We cannot afford for it to go away forever.

I get what you say. But I think some of the tensions - and especially the tensions between some migrants and the police - in the UK come from the colonial history in many of the country's of origin.

But I also think some of it comes from scandals like Rotherham and the grooming gangs cover up, which has led to many British people feeling theres a two tier system of justice.

Tim Dooley TD on The Tonight Show said he does not think we should reduce the number of work visas.

SF's Matt Carthy said that the wishes of corporations should not be the sole consideration in deciding on work visas.

The government is handing out 30,000-40,000 non EEA work visas a year.

The Irish Dental Association has called for a big reduction in the percentage of courses going to non-EEA nationals, saying that they tend to leave after they complete the courses.

I think we should have a middle way. For a start Leo Varadkar's government was wrong to leave so much EU retraining money unspent. We need to rebalance the ratios of Irish/EU to non-EEA work permits for filling labour shortages, in order to avoid aggravating social tensions more through putting more pressure on strained housing and public services. We need to upskill Irish/EEA workers too.

20 tents roughly there. What stage does someone step in and decide enough is enough! Outside people’s homes, walkway to and from work & school

Where are the number 2's going ?

O Callaghan seems to be the only one in FF who is prepared to talk about immigration.

Billy Timmins was on VM1 last night and unsurprisingly he didn't have the balls to agree with what Harris said.

It was the usual guff about needing doctors and nurses and how immigration is a good thing.

He knows god damn well nobody is saying people who come here to work in the health service should be deported.

TBH I think we are doomed to failure on this, we will continue to see an average of 15,000 AS coming here every year and very few sent back.

The CSO should be able to provide data that shows two tables, work visas granted total and a breakdown of the sectors involved, medical, construction etc and a second table showing successful asylum seekers' breakdown in the same sectors / unemployed/ state supported.

That would answer very simply if the asylum process is a means to fill these particular jobs

** allow maybe 5,000 - 10,000 UKR to stay, but they must work in new house construction, and they can never qualify for social assistance**

Most of the Ukrainians are women and children.

But lets say they were to get injured building your new houses, tough, absolutely no social supports?

That sounds worse then the slave labour they have in the middle east.

send half the stock home now, that is 40,000 approx

They aren't cows.