Ireland running out of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees due to surge in non-Ukrainian refugees?

If someone wanted to avail of the rent a room scheme they could get €800 a month or more tax free depending on location (up to €14k a year tax free)They could also pick and choose who they rented to.They could also expect to share bills.

I feel most of the people who are doing this for altruistic reasons have been well taken up.

This is desperation stuff.

It is tax free though, so you can double. Not an offer I would take myself as I wouldn't trust the government to manage it effectively

No idea. As I don’t own a spare gaff, it’s not on my radar as a dilemma. Fair dues to you if you are considering it.

Completely agree that the politicians here should lead by example! Hmmm why am I feeling so sceptical on that ………

I’d give you a B for creative writing anyway 😁

An alternative narrative goes something like this:

1920 - 1930: After a civil war, Sinn Fein splits up and FF, FG are formed, country hasn’t a pot to piss in, Government outsources the provision public services such as education and healthcare to the religious orders.

1930 - 1950: The country still hasn’t a pot to piss in, and the economy is shifting from being predominately agricultural to industrial harnessing our natural resources to generate electricity to power the next generation.

1950 - 1980: Characterised by strikes and protests in agriculture, industry and even women are getting in on the act to protest about their lot in life of domestic servitude, most people still haven’t a pot to piss in, country is riddled with disease and poverty.

1980 - 1990 - At the beginning of the decade, Charlie in his ‘State of the Nation’ address, attempts to spread a collective guilt by suggesting ‘we’ve been living well beyond our means’. More strikes, and joining the EEC in ‘73 which seemed like a good idea at the time is starting to pay off - people are emigrating, farmers are being paid not to produce goods, factories are humming and people are beginning to discover the joys of living the American dream on credit - now not only has everyone a pot to piss in, indoors, they have the fluffy bath mat set to go with the armitage shanks. Taste becomes an afterthought, where once poverty was portrayed as a virtue, it’s been replaced by gaudiness and excess.

1990 - 2000: I don’t remember much, all I know is it was one hell of a party.

2000 - 2010: We got the bill for the party, and Government laid the blame on uninvited guests. We figured we’re not paying for it, and the uninvited guests who had made the party possible went home and took their drugs with them. The country was riddled with STIs after the party so in their infinite wisdom, Government decided that it would be a good idea to scrap the health boards in an attempt to overhaul the healthcare system.

2010 - 2020: Underground parties and raves were a thing, as some people continued to party while all around them the place was going to shìt. Uninvited guests were allowed back in as long as they kept their head down and didn’t cause any trouble for the locals - they were holed up in detention centres like Mosney. Uninvited guests wrote home saying everything was going great. Their parents could boast to others of their children’s success in Ireland.

2020 - present: The older generation are pooped out from partying and beginning to sober up when they see the cost of education, healthcare and pensions rising, beginning to realise that they should have read the fine print which said there were limitations on their credit and their assets would be at risk if they couldn’t keep up the payments. They start pointing fingers looking for other people to take responsibility for the mess they caused, and not even delivering on referenda such as marriage equality and the repeal of the 8th amendment can save the populist political parties now. Even the uninvited guests who kept their heads down are getting fingered, and not in a good way.

Government in their infinite wisdom yet again, have decided that actually y’know what? We’re going to partition the healthcare system again, that should fix it, only this time we won’t call them Health Boards, they’ll be called ‘Regional Health Areas’, sounds much fancier, same thing, sounds different -

https://www.newstalk.com/news/hse-revert-back-regional-health-boards-883952

Education? ‘This is fine’, and anyone who disagrees can pay for it themselves privately. It’s becoming a more popular option anyway in spite of recent media headlines among parents who don’t want their children mixing with the riff-raff and uninvited guests -

https://extra.ie/2022/10/31/news/private-schools-huge-waiting-lists

The last line in that article is every reason why both Sinn Fein and Labour will struggle to gain enough support to be able to form a coalition Government between them -

Sinn Féin and Labour have vowed to cut State funding for private schools if they are elected

Housing and accommodation? ‘This is fine’, and anyone who disagrees will be reminded in no uncertain terms that while they can choose their family, they can’t choose their neighbours. People who live in housing they can afford, don’t want people who can’t even afford affordable housing living anywhere near them, attending their schools, using their local amenities; they’re regarded as uninvited guests, irrespective of where they’re from originally; another county, another country, doesn’t matter.

Employment? ‘This is fine’.

”I’m never going to be able to afford to start a family anyway and what with the cost of childcare I’d have to choose between employment and raising the little wallet squeezers. Slim pickings on Tinder… anyway I get a lot of likes on Twitter for my ‘childfree by choice’, ‘single by choice’ principles.”

Government can do fcukall about the position in which it finds itself, it’s no longer calling the shots, all they can do is pray for a miracle to come from somewhere, like anyone else who is completely hopeless and helpless. People in those circumstances are very receptive to all sorts of snakeoil salesmen offering them Vaseline in their time of need. It won’t be until decades later they realise that in their naïveté they’d actually been taken advantage of.

So a truck driver (and haulage firm) who is found to be driving a truck that some "asylum seekers" climbed on board unbeknownst to him can be fined, but an airline can dump hundreds if not thousands of people in Ireland without any identification who then claim asylum and they don't have to do anything about it.

Good post, but unfortunately you prompted a poster to post one of his epistles in response.

The other morning on Pat Kenny interviewee talked about making the system better to cope with more people, get people through faster, get councils to get people on housing lists and housed to free up reception centre.

Last night TV3, or whatever they are called these days, had debate on matter of refugees/asylum seekers/chancers with not one naysayer on the panel.

Not one comment how we afford this apart from "we are a prosperous country" syhtology.

Ordinary people are going to have to fight this themselves as the mainstream politicians and the media are happily going to sink this country.

So a truck driver (and haulage firm) who is found to be driving a truck that some "asylum seekers" climbed on board unbeknownst to him can be fined, but an airline can dump hundreds if not thousands of people in Ireland without any identification who then claim asylum and they don't have to do anything about it.

Weird comparison.

You can't get on a flight without identification and travel documents, potentially massive fines for the airline if it happens.

You can hardly claim there is some cosy media consensus around this issue when even Sinn Fein and PBP say they have no issue with Ireland taking in Ukrainian refugees.

It's literally only the Irish far right who are kicking off about this and they are hugely overrepresented on social media and these forums - relatively tiny numbers but making a large amount of noise. Current opinion polls show support for the Irish Freedom Party or Patriot Party or whatever they call themselves is miniscule.

There are definitely a lot of problems with with taking in Ukrainian refugees and accommodation in the country is clearly very overstretched.

But to be talking about a cosy consensus of "mainstream politicians and the media" when even Sinn Fein, PBP and others say they have no issue with taking refugees suggests it is really only a thing with right wing parties and voters (of whom there doesn't appear to many).

Just because people dont vote for looney parties like National Party of Freedom party does not mean people agree with the current influx of refugees

That is one of the most disingenuous strawmans going 🤣

I suppose there was no support for repeal the 8th at the time because the dail majority were initially against it too

11,300 homeless people in the country last month

The Housing crisis is a burning issue for the population - as is school teacher shortages and waiting times for hospital, gps etc.

All of these issues are exacerbated by taking in more people, be they Ukrainian or other asylum seekers. Not to mention the existing homeless crisis.

Have him on ignore - so didn't see it

I heard that. ' Catherine Day ' - she's wetter than the north Atlantic

It does sound like a good deal if someone has a house in a part of the country that is hard to rent out. I know of a few houses empty for years. Is it easy to back out though and get the house back when you want it? Just wondering is there any small print stuff that could catch people out.