Irish birthrate slumps 22% in a decade

Actually, I'd say that we're victims of a certain level of social conditioning, due to the favouritism shown by RTE (which oddly remains the primary source of media for most Irish people), the influence of American woke/PC/multiculturalism in education, and the agendas of our political parties. There's a general apathy towards dealing with a variety of social issues, reinforced by comments like yours.. so why seek to shutdown debate on such topics? What does it cost you to stay withhold your negative judgment?

You see, we should care about the future of our nation. It shouldn't matter if someone is young, middle aged or old, but we should be expressing our concerns over issues such as these. After all, what's the point of living in a democratic system if people aren't informed and don't care what happens beyond the most superficial of changes. Which, in many ways, is how we've ended up where we are right now.

Across all of Europe, countries are concerned with the demographic shifts that have occurred due to a combination of falling birth rates, and increased non-native populations. You can see countries such as Sweden, Denmark, etc who previously embraced mass immigration, and multiculturalism, now deciding to limit immigration and the rights of non-native groups. Why would that be the case? because people, like yourself, have ignored what's been going on, dismissing the concerns of those who have spoken about it.

So, why will Ireland be any different from our continental neighbours? If we continue on the path we've been following, we're going to end up exactly like them, forced to deal with these problems after they've become serious problems, rather than anticipating them, and resolving them before they become serious issues...

Oh, I'm middle aged, not old. At least not yet anyway. However if you are young, perhaps you should care, because this situation will impact you the most. After all, traditionally problems are often deferred to the next generation to resolve, until they can't be deferred any longer.. so you (and those younger than you) will be the ones to have to bear the brunt of the problems involved.

Asylum seekers are not part of mass immigration. Typically the numbers involved are low in comparison with normal refugee applications... so AS isn't relevant.

As for which countries were encouraging mass immigration? Most western nations did, while multiculturalism and diversity were touted by Germany (and by extension, the EU) for the last two decades. Immigration to Europe increased dramatically under the official policies implemented by the EU to make Europe a more diverse continent.

Now, most of this came from countries which originally were manufacturing centres. Germany, France, Italy, etc all of whom had a manufacturing, agricultural base, along with tourism which needed cheap labour, so they encouraged mass immigration to solve their employment needs. After all, as their own economies became more successful, and education became widespread, less natives were interested in such jobs, partly due to the rising costs of living, but also the status/prestige of getting better jobs. Alas for Italy, their economy crumbled, and they were left with a large foreign born population who were stuck at the lower end of society due to a lack of education or wealth, which in turn, has led to huge hikes in social welfare and crime. Germany and France have done better because their economies remain relatively strong, and their manufacturing bases have stayed relevant, but.. the problems with a low skilled foreign population in an expensive nation, are ever increasing in scope.

But sure, mass immigration has essentially stopped being supported by European countries since covid came along.. except for Ireland, who continue to believe that we need large numbers of foreigners with low skills to fill jobs that Irish people supposedly don't want to do. Which wouldn't be any kind of issue if they remained on renewable visas, and went home after a few years or a decade, but the Irish political parties have been encouraging these migrants to stay and become citizens. So, rather than encouraging our inward skilled/educated migrant population to stay, they encourage everyone to stay regardless of their ability to provide for themselves in the long-term. Hell, they've even sought to make it easier for illegal immigrants (no, not undocumented.. illegal) to remain in Ireland and avail of the path to citizenship.

So.. mass immigration is still of particular interest for our political parties.

Wow.

Just. ****ing. Wow,

I mean, the racist bots have recent registration dates. So who the **** are you?

On a completely unrelated matter, what sort of foreign-assed name is "Miadhc" anyway? Asking for a friend.

Honky mots, at any rate, amirite? 😁

That ecological collapse thingy you mention is gonna happen one way or another, and there's probably gonna be some really painful **** going on when it does.

I'm a one-child parent, and that wasn't the answer in our case, not by a long way. For nearly 20 years, the Irish tax system has favoured the well-off putting their domestic and family choices ahead of career, and has favoured lower income people doing things the other way round.

I don't recall any black or brown people putting those policies in place, not that this will be in any way relevant to the armchair ethno-nationalist bots. ☘️

"embarssment"? Is that a thing?

Spare us from the over-confidence of mediocre white males.

"Miadhc" is not an Irish name. Léigh arís é, agus anois scrúdaigh go grinn é.

By the way, leaving the ethno-nationalist drivel being spouted by some on this thread, there is a simple rule you can apply, and there's no dichotomy to it. In advanced societies, people will generally have fewer children because the children they have are more likely to survive long enough to take care of their parents in their old age. There will be bumps and hollows around that general rule, but they make only marginal differences in the overall scheme of things. Are there societies that have gone through significant economic development without significant falls in their birthrates?