Ukrainian refugees in Ireland - Megathread

You're from America are you not? I don't know if you got your visa because you're married to an Irish person but that's neither here nor there. When you moved to my country I guarantee you had to show you could support yourself.

Or are you living in a house with plenty of space? As a non national you would be better placed than most to take in refugees

Absolutely. They're meant to moving in within the next week. So something has to be done soon. Why should 17 Irish families that are struggling with housing lose out?And they're probably on the housing list for years. That's not fair at all. We have a huge problem and our government are refusing to acknowledge and do anything about it and they can't be inviting people in like this and then skip over our own.

I can almost predict the response to this post.

It will go something like:

Who are ‘our own’? I don’t want to be associated with you, something, something, wibble, wibble.

Absolutely . The Government made a commitment and dumped the admin on a very ill equipped RC . From day one a task force should have set up like they did for Covid with Experts in charge of the sourcing of shelter , advising on benefits and everything to do with refugees needs .

Maybe then we wouldn’t be in this mess with refugees having more disposable income than our own unemployed and most pensioners . Depite some are in hotels with three meals and no bills they still get full benefits and have a nice disposable income . While low income families struggling to meet the kids needs and she this happening it’s causing anger to bubble up which is very understandable

I knew there was a similar story but couldn't find it.

This one stinks though, it's 17 houses and not one.

It's still early on a Sunday morning - give it time.

You're dead right though. I was calling it out at the start and as it's gotten worse over the last 6 months, and it was clear to anyone with a bit of sense and objectivity that the "come one, come all" approach was unsustainable and would result very quickly in major problems given the issues we already had in the areas these new arrivals would be most dependent on - housing, health, welfare, education/training and employment.

I've also been saying for a while now that continuing to support this is supporting Irish people being treated as second class citizens in our own country. Others said of course this wouldn't happen but as we've seen from the newspaper articles that have been posted, that's exactly what's happening as the needs of these Ukrainian arrivals are being put ahead of the needs of the rest of us.

Unfortunately though we have also imported this Americanised culture of virtue signalling, narcissism and polarisation on any so-called controversial issues and too many of the Irish (who instinctively NEED to fit in, be validated or on the perceived right side of the topic) have lapped it up - which is why we have posters here, on Twitter and elsewhere cheering on this approach regardless of the damage and friction it's now causing to our communities.

As a people we really need to grow up and stand up for ourselves when the situation calls for it. Anonymous Twitter posters or even the EU leadership don't give a toss about what happens in Ireland (most probably couldn't even find it on a map), and our own supposed leaders have equally abandoned the majority in favour of more of this grandstanding and virtue signalling (Leo and McEntee in particular - but again, nothing new about that to anyone who was watching). The consequences of this will not be felt by anyone else except those same communities who are now being dramatically expanded without consultation or warning, and they are consequences that will be felt for years and decades to come.

Charity is all well and good, but it must be proportionate to the resources available, and it must not be at the expense of citizens and communities who rely and depend on those same resources. Don't forget either that we already give away hundreds of millions of Euro annually in foreign aid programmes as well (even in the height of the financial crisis/recession which was insanity).

I have no problem with calling all this out because I care not about the opinions of randomers on the Internet, nor am I so thin skinned as to be offended by being called xenophobic or racist or whatever by others trying to show how virtuous they are. I care about the impact of all this on OUR country, OUR communities, OUR future and the future of my son and the Ireland he'll inherit, and what supports and opportunities he'll have to build a life for himself and maybe his own family.

If that upsets some who want to complain about us "doing more" or sticking their heads in the sand when the very real problems become more serious and louder then so be it! We have done enough. It's time to start putting this recent and unexpected and amazing initiative and speed to solving our own problems before we take on any more of others.

This actually does sound like a variation on the NIMBY argument used elsewhere for planning applications, i.e. no issue with this and fully support the concept but put it in someone else's backyard.

There was a quite successful Rural Resettlement Scheme running up to a few years ago, but the funding was cut by FFG ,and I think it's died a death.

That article actually says.

Didn't realise that she actually sent letters out to locals.

It is quite noticeable how Sinn Fein and the INAR groups behave differently depending on who the migrants are. If the people were African or Middle Eastern, the government funded INAR groups will be sending people out to counter protest and Sinn Fein, PBP etc will be out there to confront the locals. That letter most certainly wouldn't have been sent out.