Amnesty scheme for undocumented migrants in Ireland

Another terrific post articulating some very legitimate concerns.

Thank you Klaz for the critical reasoning you consistently bring to these threads. It’s very refreshing.

Undocumented workers are already working in the low paid hospitality industry. Once legitimate they be in the much stronger position to demand their rights (min wage etc) and will want their taxes paid, so employer costs will rise. I don't see how this will fix staff shortages. It is not as is if the undocumented are sitting in their council provided homes and collecting the dole.

Look at the number on the live register.. if the places were paying a fair and commensurate wage proportioned to experience and responsibilities…they just want cheap labor.

Staff shortage is real.

Where I am we start weekend student staff at €12, full time / 3 day week staff get a day rate or salary and average €16/hour +

We still cannot get good staff.

We'll get some applications, but quality is dreadful. The last two "locals" we took on had grossly exaggerated their CV and couldn't do simple tasks.

Our HR person approached a refugee centre a couple of weeks ago and it looks like the positions will be filled from there (Syrian pre-cleared status) and the benefit for the economy is that they will be employed and paying tax.

You'll naturally only ever hear the negative stories, but that's because the media are only interested in things that divide people. Good news doesn't sell.

The most disturbing fact in that entire sorry tale is the incompetence of your HR department. Apparently, they are unable to screen candidates for their core competencies, which is surely one of the most fundamental elements of that role, no?

Then having failed to perform their most basic function, they approach the local direct provision center, which is ostensibly bursting to the seams, full of suitably qualified candidates, with skill sets far superior to that of the locals. I also find your air quotes around ‘locals’ to be interesting. Is there a message you are trying to convey there?

So in effect, we have an HR department, unable to execute on their role, who then take the dubious decision to recruit desperate people, who may or may not have appropriate work authorization to be legally employed in this country. Not only is this department incompetent, the ethical foundation of how they operate, is dubious to say the least.

I think John Cleese has come calling. It looks like the sequel to ‘Faulty Towers’ is in production in regional Ireland.

There is no need for non-EU workers, as there are 164,000 people on the Live Register and 75,000 on PUP.

Somebody on DA may work part-time, and so be included in the employment data.

If they receive DA, and are actively seeking work, then they are classified as being unemployed.

However, if they receive DA, they would not be on the Live Register.

"Ivy’s parents were also impressed by a successful campaign the school ran two years ago, to prevent the deportation of three of its students and their past pupil brother."

Very one sided as usual from RTE. No wonder they barely covered this amnesty at all. In cases like these, individual politicians try to take the credit for overturning years of legal procedures, in order to secure votes for themselves at the next election. Complete undermining of our immigration laws.

Haven't Irish immigrants in America being campaigning for exactly the same thing for years?

'The Department of Foreign Affairs has insisted that addressing the situation facing undocumented Irish emigrants in the United States has been a top priority for successive governments and remains so for this Coalition.'

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In fairness at least with this measure for immigrants in Ireland the Irish government do not look like hypocrites and are calling a spade a spade. Fair dues to them on this issue at least.

It's this "be grand" attitude that has this country in the half-assed, inadequate, always reactive state it is.