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

I think anyone in Venezuela who opposes the government there has a better case for asylum in Ireland than people who arrived from safe countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Georgia etc. so many people there have been jailed for criticising or allegedly criticising the government: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260113-fear-vies-with-sorrow-at-funeral-for-venezuelan-political-prisoner

(i acknowledge that Nigeria does have internal conflicts, but it’s a huge country and people there can migrate internally, they don’t need to transit though safe counties to come to Ireland for asylum. )

I’m curious to know how a Romanian national could have moved to Ireland in 1997 and lived here legally, given that Romania did not join the EU until 2007 and he’s never worked here.

Well, my assumption is that his residence was lawful, as he appears to have lived openly in the State and claimed benefits for many years (and surely it’s not that easy, right 🙄) However, without a work permit, study visa, recognised family connection, or business permission, I’m unclear what legal basis would have allowed long‑term residence prior to Romania’s EU accession.

If he was not working - which the article says he never did - this raises further questions around eligibility for social welfare supports during that period, as access to State benefits generally requires lawful residence and specific entitlements.

The article refers to his marriage of 30 years, which would place his marriage at 16 years of age and his arrival in Ireland at around age 18. Given these timelines, it seems unlikely that a sham marriage to an EU national was the basis for his right to reside in Ireland at the time of entry either.

I’m therefore interested in understanding what legal pathway would have existed in the late 1990s that permitted someone in this position to remain in the State long‑term whilst claiming benefits for the whole duration. A look too at Scholar's Walk in Lusk brings up some very nice looking housing.

This whole story is an absolute disgrace. How much have this man and this family cost the State while contributing absolutely nothing?

Oh man, the **** country is a joke. It really is.

"Iosca was born in Romania and came to Ireland in 1997 when he was 18 years old, but his defence counsel said he had never worked because he had no experience of work.".

Yip, there are those sort people out there...just don't vote for them. That insurance fraudster jailed today should be added to the list.

An old friend of mine in this E.U. country was simply told when applying for social welfare to go home to Spain as they would not receive any welfare. Either that or get a job. She herself didn't consider it to be a civil rights infringement and went back.

What happens in Ireland is not "normal".

Amazing how he was able to commit insurance fraud even though he wasn’t born with this innate skill set….or was he?

I think it goes further than that now with the good people not happy to be self indoctrinated but convinced that their mission in life is to drag the uncouth, ill educated, quite frankly embarrassing dinosaurs into their only game in town cult

Very sorry for your loss. My sister too could not get a medical card, when she was going through cancer treatment despite paying taxes for over 35 years. She also passed away never having a medical card. My father is in his nineties and does not qualify for a medical card. He too worked all his life. It's sickening reading what goes on here.

Didn’t we give every new arrival from Ukraine a medical card with no means testing?

Are they all convictions in Ireland? We are morally bankrupt if that's the number it takes to get deported. What ideologies led us here?

At some point we will have to start discussing the Immigration situation from the UK and the EU itself.

With the UK becoming more YooKay by the day and the likes of Spain now legalising 500,000 more law breakers it begs the question whether we as a culture can afford freedom of movement with these countries.

https://www.euractiv.com/news/spain-to-approve-extraordinary-regularization-of-half-a-million-migrants/

Some brief murmurs did occur during COVID about dealing with the situation in the North. But with the way things are going everywhere across western europe it's going to be more than just whatever is left of the UK we need to shut off immigration from.

‘Pat discussed this further with Teresa Buczkowska from the Immigration Council of Ireland.’

Some people consider Pat Kenny right wing, yet it would seem that even he is oblivious to how preposterous it is to have on someone from the Immigrant Council to talk objectively about trust in NGOs. It strikes me as being the equivalent of having to interview a priest about social matters fifty years ago.

On a separate note, there was an incident at the meeting of Fingal County Council last week in which a National Party councillor made a speech about the surging population. I have no time for that party and I didn’t like how the councillor expressed himself, but there was nothing egregious in what he said. But it received an indignant response from other councillors.

A Nigerian councillor for Fianna Fáil responded by saying, “To address people as non-nationals - I think it has been long agreed that that is inappropriate … Using that term non-nationals is absolutely unacceptable and I strongly object to its usage … I take total exception to the use of that language while I sit in this chamber. Withdraw that language right now.”

But non-national is a completely acceptable term. In fact, it is the progressive name for foreigners or immigrants. The left’s attempt to shut down debate by policing language is so flagrant at this point. As the failed Green Party candidate Saoirse McHugh once said in a debate, ‘It’s an old trope and it’s getting boring.’

I think this is one of these things where it helps to take a wee step back and try to appreciate that there are a great many ranges of emotion between cynically "shutting down debate" and perhaps genuinely being offended in context. I watched the video of the exchange and yeah, I didn't quite see the fuss as to the use of the term non-national — perhaps people who are naturalised here or have lived and contributed here for some time don't necessarily like being called non-nationals. But yes, for statistical purposes we do need terms of reference.

But then I read the comments from some people under the video:

Mod - quoted comments removed. @ArthurDayne please do not post content that is against the site rules.

Now, by your own allusions to the National Party in your post, it sounds like you probably would accept that this party could probably fairly be described as the type of party some of the lovely commenters above might be drawn towards. And one could probably surmise that the National Party, not so long ago led by the self-avowed Hitler fan Justin Barrett, might be somewhat guilty of massaging such sentiments — right? So I don't know, maybe it's not all about shutting down debate and the context of the party being represented by Cllr Quinlan might have just pushed a little button with Cllr Onwumereh. Just my own thoughts.

Absolutely. We will repeat the mistakes Canada made. Disaster in the making.