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

We are being taken for fools and have been for years

I imagine all parties are pro immigration, apart from the Cosplay Nazi ones who don't get any votes anyway.

But I don't see a doubling down on anything in that brief piece.

We've locked ourselves into a paradigm where we demand perpetual growth for owners of assets but without doing any kind of investing. Immigration is needed for growth. It's very simple. No politician is going to be open about this because that would require real change and difficult conversations.

Whatever about the conversation being hard the implementation for the alternative will be brutal.

The majority in Ireland would know more about economic decline than growth.

Tough one to sell the populous.

The Celtic Tiger was an example of people having plenty of unstainable credit not money.

Those who were able to tough it out still had to still service those debts, those who couldn't went to the wall. Those who came in at the right time did okay.

The country is actually far richer now in cash terms than in any period before it.

€1,000 euro month flat in Westport is a direct consequence of the Celtic Tiger, where no lending guard rails existed and which led to expensive over supply.

Nearly every county in Ireland is still dealing with remnants of it.

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/mayo/news/council-urged-to-throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-celtic-tiger-ghost-estate-in-mayo-where-77-homes-lie-derelict/a1824255407.html

Multiples of other factors also contribute to the ridiculous situation of a flat costing a grand a month in Westport.

For instance whilst there might have been only 7 options on Daft (although Daft isn't the true barometer anymore), there is currently nearly 400 options on Air BnB.

For the conversation to be effective, it needs to incorporate everything, not just immigration.

That credit could have been invested.

It was invested, largely in properties. Timing dictated whether it was a good or not.

To be fair a lot of the capital investment also went on education, which is one of the reasons now we need to import workers for certain sectors and are badly lacking in others.

I don't see how the Westport flat is an example of oversupply. Surely, undersupply if anything?

Expensive Oversupply.

When the crash happened people got caught with extra properties or just being accidental landlords.

That flat in Westport (if it existed) would have struggled to recoup the loan amount owed on it.

People had to diversify or they would go under. Selling wasn't an option.

Then Enter the Wild Atlantic Way Campaign.

Then Covid, where a lot of people abandoned they rentals and moved back home, because of remote working.

It's the reason now the likes of Westport is very much on trend and experience a building boom.

But like the Celtic Tiger proved, a building boom or even an oversupply of housing doesn't mean cheaper housing.

It means that parties are against any policies to reduce both illegal and legal immigration.

I don't think it's correct to say that all parties are pro unlimited immigration.

Haven't Aontú mentioned something about at least trying to limit some forms of immigration?

And also Independent Ireland are surely for introducing restrictions on some forms of immigration?

Though in fairness, while immigration can help with growth, growth can also occur through other factors.

We’ll end up shelling out a shed load of more dosh to incentivise this ‘voluntary’ return of the people who would return anyway while turning a blind eye to the rest.

Given that the Govt have already signalled that they are prepared to hand over €10k to pretty much anyone willing to take a free flight to their home country why the hell would the UKR or any other nationality voluntarily leave this place without their pockets stuffed with cash.

Debating it now on Radio 1.

Of course the Labour TD says nothing should be cut.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0428/1570625-ukrainians-ireland/

The bleeding heart articles have started I see. If you've been living in Ireland for 4 years for free and getting dole on top of that, asking you to pay your way like everyone else doesn't mean you're not welcome. It just means it's time you started contributing like the rest of us..