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

Once again, this whole argument hinges on the fallacy that we are dealing in a binary all or nothing system. 

It doesn’t though, it acknowledges that Government aren’t dealing with a binary system, which is what you’re hoping for with this kind of silliness -

Sectors like health, social care, construction do not fall into those categories, hence migrants with skills in these areas are more than welcome. 

People outside of these sectors are not essential and therefore should not be permitted entry to the state to live in.

You must surely be aware that it’s not simply a question of whether or not there are labour shortages in essential areas that determines whether or not immigrants are permitted entry into the State to live in? For one thing those people who are required to fill employment gaps in essential areas, they are often coming with their families. It was one of the reasons for Government introducing this measure -

The changes will give most doctors with General Employment Permits the same rights as doctors on the Critical Skills Employment Permit scheme and make Ireland a much more attractive location for doctors to come to. It will help our health service to attract and retain medical staff and increase the number of applications for vacant posts. It will also reduce the administrative burden placed on doctors and their employers by the State.

From now on, most non-EEA doctors already in the State for between 2-5 years with a General Employment Permit may apply for a new permission granting them the right to work without a permit. Their spouses or partners will also receive a permission allowing them to work. Currently these doctors must have been present and working in the State for 5 years to qualify.

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-enterprise-tourism-and-employment/press-releases/up-to-1800-doctors-to-benefit-from-changes-to-immigration-rules/

Third-level educational institutions would undoubtedly kick up a hell of a stink too if their incomes from international students tuition fees alone was ever threatened -

In 2020/21, there were more than 245,000 students enrolled in higher education in Ireland. This has risen by 43%, from just under 172,000 students in 2007/08.

During the same period, the number of International students has also risen dramatically, from just over 13,000 students in 2007/08, to more than 25,000 International students today in 2020/21. This represents an increase of nearly 90%.

https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2022/03/2022-Info-Byte-International-Students-Final.pdf

You’re not even scratching the surface of a credible argument if all it amounts to is imagining that ‘only migrants with skills welcome, everyone else not permitted’. That’s the very definition of a binary system.

One glaring point has been overlooked in his assessment money, contractors and workers to build these houses.A government reluctant to build social houses as many are in rent arrears .

On experts we have a number of elected politicians who benefit and their connected benefactors from IPAS.

You can see in this thread even that there are still some people that think that 100,000 extra people a year don't occupy a single house and have no impact on rental housing supply!!

I can't even think about the mental contortions required to think like this maybe it's a new category of mental illness?

We in Ireland need to stop obsessing about Palestine and Donald Trump and start deporting illegal immigrants and reducing all unskilled migration. We can issue 5 or 10 year worker visas for skilled building labour that have no path to citizenship just like in the UAE but obviously without the exploitation.

These visas are only valid if the holder works in a construction related area. With a lower than replacement birth rate and a sane immigration policy there will be much less future demand for housing anyway.

Wait until you see this, nearly double the amount attended. I'm surprised you haven't already brought it up on thread.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgkry7k0pvo

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2rd2yn5njo

This will be remembered as the year that Catholicism fully asserted itself in England.

Maybe Britain needs another Brexit?

I’m aware of that and it doesn’t sit easy, but come back to me when it happens in O’Connell Street or Stephen’s Green.

There was a time when to be brain-rotted by Twitter meant to fall into conspiracy theories. Now it just means to be aware of things happening elsewhere! To notice reality is Islamophobic.

It is not fearful or bigoted to have grown up in an increasingly secular society and not wish for a foreign religion to drag us backwards, as it is doing in England.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2026/03/21/postponing-parenthood-how-irelands-housing-crisis-is-forcing-people-to-delay-having-children/

Today’s Irish Times, just gonna leave this here

Odd for them to report on something that apparently isn’t happening

The girl highlighted doesn't have a partner.

But she does highlight an important point.

She says she also thinks women are more educated and independent, and less willing to “settle” for what previous generations of women accepted. “There’s a strange thing happening in the dating world, where it’s sort of at a standstill,” McAree says. She believes men simply don’t feel the same “urgency” to have children that women do, which makes dating harder.

Again highlighting the primary reasons for our falling fertility rates.

But but but bloody foreigners….

I'm not equating anything.

I'm pointing out a far bigger event you seem to have missed.

Odd for them to report on something that apparently isn’t happening

It’s not odd at all that they would publish an article designed to induce anxiety in good people like yourself. The article itself is behind a subscriber paywall (there’s a subscriber crisis and a paywall crisis), but the report it references as a source, is not, and nowhere in that report is the term ‘housing crisis’ used -

https://www.nesc.ie/building-a-virtuous-demographic-cycle-accessible/

Again Stephen - context. It matters.

Essentially true.

also though, a lot of women in western societies do inevitably want children at some stage, and don’t seem to grasp the nettle that if they wait till their late 30s they may have missed their chance.
There’s a bit of an information gap here. Understandably, people pushing lifestyle and consumerist fantasies (influencers etc) is a lot more appealing than than a stern warning that the body clock is ticking away.

Irish Times has long given in to conspiracy theories and right wing talking points. Thought this was well known!?

So you can't name anyone?

You'd imagine a scheme to make white people extinct would have been exposed by now and not just knocking around 4Chan.

No one said that though, did they?

You literally said: "The single biggest driver of reduced birth rates is the evolution of women's rights and women's reproductive rights. The days of women being treated like cattle are over."

Followed up by some misandry like ramblings about incels who hate the fact women have rights at all.

Again, Scandivian countries have a fertality rate less than us.

Denmark Fertility Rates 1963: 2.3; Sweden Fertility Rates 1964: 2.5; Norway Fertility Rates 1964: 3.0; Finland Fertility Rates 1964: 2.5

Denmark Fertility Rates 2023: 1.5; Sweden Fertility Rates 2023: 1.5; Norway Fertility Rates 2023: 1.4; Finland Fertility Rates 2023: 1.3

By comparison: Ireland Fertility Rates 1960: 3.8; Ireland Fertility Rates 2023: 1.5.

We are on a par with the Nordics now, not higher than them. Secondly, Ireland has seen a larger drop in rates when compared to any of the Nordic states.

You will also find that in particular two of the Nordic countries, Denmark and Sweden, tried to halt population decline (as a result of low fertility rates) by allowing large amounts of migration into their respective countries.

Most people will agree that allowing large amounts of migration into those two countries has proven a disaster. The outcome has seen Sweden electing a right wing government with strict immigration policies as their core campaign. But it's not just exclusive to the right-wing to seek to clamp down on immigration, the left-wing Danish government has heeded the warnings and implemented similar policies to Sweden.

However, in the uni-party government of Ireland, those Swedes and the Danes can't teach us clever Irish a thing because we are so special. We are going to create the first truly multicultural society - we're gonna show the world how it's done.

Absolute bonkers stuff Boggles, delusional.

So what tax burden are you personally willing to shoulder yourself to incentivise births here more than Scandivia? Please be specific.

It doesn't have to be about increased taxation in order to deliver something positive for the Irish people. I think it's fair to say when looking around at the country we don't have alot to show for the Billions and Billions we take in in taxes every year (unless you look in the houses, garages and bank accounts of the very well connected).

Re-directing the Billions spent on IPAs annually for instance would be far better spent in investing in families and the structures needed to nurture their growth.

Rather than having it 'a necessity' for both parents to work, we should be aiming to make it optional. Let both parents work if they want to and can manage it, but it should also be financially rewarding for a parent to stay at home (even part-time) to raise a family.

That should be the goal - not pandering to companies looking for cheap overseas labour or some third worlder rocking up with a fabricated sob story. We need to grow up as a nation, and fast - especially the far left who traditionally would have come out hard against this.

No one said that though, did they?

No.

You literally said: "The single biggest driver of reduced birth rates is the evolution of women's rights and women's reproductive rights. The days of women being treated like cattle are over."

I am fully aware for what I said.

You on the other hand.

To evaluate that low birth rates are solely down to women's choice is absurd

You can't debate or challenge what I said because it is a literal fact.

So we are back to blaming bloody foreigners, the reason for all perceived ills.

It must be exhausting.