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

The Minister stated that the cost to process each asylum claim is €122,000.

This does not include costs from after the claim.

The costs it does include -

Currently it is estimated to cost €122,000 per person to process an average international protection application. This includes costs for accommodation and food, social protection payments, health care and education. Increasing reintegration assistance for those at an earlier stage in the process is aimed at reducing the pressure on the system from the high numbers of applications received in 2023 and 2024.

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/press-releases/minister-for-justice-home-affairs-and-migration-jim-ocallaghan-announces-new-incentive-to-encourage-voluntary-returns/

If you ever wonder why we can't have nice things like the tram lines in French cities, think about that €20 billion.

Funny you should say that -

The Luas carriages had returned to Ireland following a lengthy repair process in France, and sat uncovered at the port attracting interest from passersby.

The tram was set on fire during rioting on November 23rd, 2023, after its windows were shattered and a burning bin was brought on board. The incident resulted in severe damage to the interior, seating and wiring of the carriages.

The cost of the damage to the tram amounted to €5 million, and the Luas was suspended for 24 hours after the incident, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard late last year. The man who set the tram alight was jailed for three years.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/03/11/luas-burnt-out-during-dublin-riots-arrives-home-after-5m-repairs-in-france/

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/10/13/man-who-started-fire-on-luas-during-dublin-riots-jailed-for-three-years/

Haha, I’ve read it all now. We spend €20 billion on AS supports but you choose to focus on the €5 million cost of repairing a tram damaged during that awful riot following a vicious attack on Irish people by that deranged Algerian.

In case it slipped your mind, that riot happened because of the attempted murder of very young children and their crèche teacher by Algerian Riad Bouchaker with a 13 inch kitchen knife. Don’t forget that we’ve also spent substantial amounts of taxpayers money directly on that criminal to pay for his asylum supports, medical, social welfare, legal, on-going prison and psychiatric services. And he is also responsible for the other costs that resulted from his disgraceful murdering actions eg. the medical care for his victims, AGS and the courts service, the legal teams, the interpreters etc. etc. The list is huge.

And he is just one of the many chancers who’ve rocked up here in recent times and not only scammed our country and abused our generosity, but then seriously harmed and killed innocent Irish people. It’s infuriating that we continue with the farce, but it’s even more infuriating to read some of the drivel posted here. 😤 😤

They are foreign but they are almost never citizens which is an absolutely crucial difference. This means they can all be removed once their visas are gone which are typically linked to employment. If Ireland became 90 per cent foreign, I doubt you would even concede that point then given your posting history.

Why mention the UAE? It's hardly typical. Are Pakistanis or Nigerians racist as those countries are nearly 100 per cent made up of their native born citizens? Ireland is probably one of the least racist countries on earth. The rapid and unprecedented demoraphic change in Ireland is extreme and to be concerned about it is normal and not racist in any sense.

All the more reason to be concerned as we have taken in thousands of illegal immigrants from countries that are certain to be disproportionately over-represented in number of crimes per capita and the unemployed in future. It is imperative that we remove as many of these as possible and offer no path to citizenship for anyone with a criminal record or no employment history.

Haha, I’ve read it all now. We spend €20 billion on AS supports but you choose to focus on the €5 million cost of repairing a tram…

Geuze pulled that €20 billion figure out of his arse though, and then suggested that’s why we can’t have nice things like the trams in France.

That’s what reminded me of the damage done to the Luas - not because our Government in the last 30 years has spent whatever amount of money on processing asylum applications, but simply because when we do have nice things, it only takes scumbags a few seconds to destroy them, costing several million in repairs, and I’m not going to pull figures out of my arse in an attempt to estimate the cost of scumbags who choose to vandalise property that isn’t theirs over the last 30 years, because that’s all I’d be doing- is pulling figures out of my arse.

Geuze’s efforts were an attempt to infuriate, and you’re infuriated, but I don’t imagine you’ll go out thinking you’ve a right to commit vandalism because of something someone else did. That’s the difference between you and the kind of scumbags who engage in this sort of behaviour that costs millions to repair (again, I’m not willing to estimate how much it’s cost over 30 years - I’ll come up with some astronomical figure, but I’d still only be guessing) -

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0714/1523427-irish-rail-spent-1-35m-last-year-dealing-with-vandalism/

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/four-local-authorities-spending-over-e500k-per-year-to-remove-graffiti-1762000.html

https://www.thejournal.ie/diamond-park-vandalism-halloween-6865083-Nov2025/

The point being - we have nice things, in spite of the efforts of scumbags who think they have a right to vandalise property that isn’t theirs for whatever reasons they imagine gives them that right.

it’s that the National Gallery is the centre piece of the square

I’m not sure which way you’re oriented, but the centre piece of the square is Nelson’s Column. Big yoke, you can’t miss it -

The €122,000 cost per claimant is direct from the Minister.

"Currently it is estimated to cost €122,000 per person to process an average international protection application."

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/press-releases/minister-for-justice-home-affairs-and-migration-jim-ocallaghan-announces-new-incentive-to-encourage-voluntary-returns/

33k Ipas applicants in 310 hubs at cost of €1.2bn https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2026-03-19a.52

With over €130m of that going to one family -

https://businessplus.ie/news/banty-mcenaney-refugees/

The direct provision system in Ireland was an awful idea at its inception, but it was the Government of the time decided to push ahead with it in spite of being advised against it due to the potential cost -

“The Government has decided that permanent accommodation for 4,000 asylums seekers is to be constructed as quickly as possible,” he said. “However, the construction of permanent accommodation units will inevitably take some time and the government is, therefore, obliged to examine various options.”

In hindsight, the future of Ireland’s struggle was cast in those few words. The State never built its own accommodation at the rate envisaged and instead opted heavily for private-sector supply.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/in-20-years-direct-provision-has-cost-ireland-1-3bn-is-there-a-better-alternative-1.4089971

Yes, that is the total across the past 30 years, across the 160,000 to 170,000 applicants, in today's money.

You’re pulling figures out of thin air again. Just two posts up is the estimated figures for the provision of accommodation and services over a period of 10 years - in 2015 it was €57M, today it’s €1.2Bn, and what you’re doing is applying today’s figures as though it was the figures for the last 30 years.

Naturally enough, that figure can be whatever you want it to be because there’s no way of calculating the actual cost. It’s easier to claim the ‘true cost’ is billions more when your original figures are bullshìt in the first place.

It’s a pointless exercise because the ordinary people of Ireland don’t get to decide how much Government will spend on the provision of services for anyone, let alone how much Government will spend so we can have nice things, and certainly asylum seekers and immigrants don’t have any say whatsoever in Irish Government policies or how much the Irish Government will allocate in the budget to provide for accommodation, education, healthcare, welfare and so on.

In 2019 our current expenditure was 60 billion. In 2026 our current expenditure is 98 billion. Our yearly outgoings have gone up by 38 billion in 7 years. 64% increase. Wheres it all going? Look around 👀. Whats different. Oh yeah an extra 200k+ foreigners on government supports. 20 billion a year is a conservative figure for what we are dishing out to foreigners when you factor in the huge range of supports they get from a web of government agencies and NGO's. That figure would never be made available to the public as there would be a revolt. Accomodation, food, legal fees, security, education, healthcare, transport and all the other trimmings. 20 billion a year wouldn't touch it.

Ah right, the opportunity. Go ahead and just ignore the events that led to the protests. Maybe you’re happy to see and excuse random foreigners with knives attempting to murder our very young children in the street in the middle of the day but I suspect others protested because they were so incensed by such a horrendous act.

In 2019 our current expenditure was 60 billion. In 2026 our current expenditure is 98 billion. Our yearly outgoings have gone up by 38 billion in 7 years. 64% increase. Wheres it all going?

Rising costs accounts for a significant portion of the increase in the amount spent, whereas the figure Geuze refers to is in relation to the amount spent on just processing applications, the cost of which has increased too. That’s what’s different.

There are a small number of people who are benefiting enormously from the current privatisation of provision of accommodation and services for asylum seekers, and that has been the fault of successive Governments over the past number of decades who, at the time were advised against it, but pushed ahead anyway. That’s not the fault of asylum seekers, they have the right to apply for asylum. It’s the fault of our own Government, elected by the ordinary Irish electorate.

Jim O’ Callahan’s latest stunt of attempting to entice asylum seekers to withdraw their application for a couple of grand isn’t going to come anywhere close to reducing the amount of money paid to private services providers -

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/09/29/paying-10000-to-families-to-drop-asylum-claims-will-save-money-for-state-ocallaghan/

It’ll get Jim a few votes though.

That’s not a fair assessment at all. I haven’t ignored the fact that Government spending on the administration and provision of services for international protection applicants has been an enormous waste of public funds.

It was the suggestion that because money is wasted on X, we can’t have Y, when neither of those things are related, that I pointed out exactly why we can’t have Y, which has nothing to do with X. We can have Y, and still there will always be people who make excuses for scumbags who have never had to pay for anything, but want everything because that’s what they imagine is fair.