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

Modular homes could well be the way to go. They are not intended to permanent 'homes', but simply a form of temporary housing that can used over and over again by different people who need temporarily need a roof over their heads for six months or a year or whatever. Building 10,000 would definitely take pressure off the system, especially if they insisted on putting families only into them (i.e. it could take, say, 40,000 people out of the system very quickly).

I’m not surprised the money is going unspent either, not because of the lack of interest from builders, or labour shortages in the construction industry, or the fact that the reasons there is a lack of interest from builders is because of rising costs which they just don’t have the cash flow to be able to take on large projects and wait to be paid. None of that has anything to do with the fact that local authorities just don’t want to build. It’s not even a question of getting value for money because Government aren’t saving anything by missing their targeted projections for social housing. The money is there, it’s meant to be spent, but it’s not being spent -

“The DEPR report sets out in stark detail the impact of the underspend. Social Housing output is likely to be 28% below target with just 6500 of the promised 9000 new build social homes delivered.

“Affordable housing output is likely to be a staggering 78% short of the 4100 affordable homes promised. The DEPR report estimates that less than 1000 affordable homes were delivered last year.

“There is a direct link between the deepening housing crisis and the Minister for Housing's missed targets. People are homeless because the government is failing to meet its social housing targets. Rents and house prices are rising because the government is failing to meet its affordable housing targets.

“For the third year in a row, Darragh O’Brien has missed his public housing targets and failed to spend the capital allocated to him. The government's housing plan is not working. It is making the crisis worse. 

https://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/64952

You’re the epitome of virtue signalling by declaring that you have no issue with people coming into the country by the legal route. I could be a patronising smartarse and point out that’s very big of you to be ok with people who have every legal right to be here, but that would shoot a hole in your whole “Ireland is full” nonsense, because you clearly do have an issue with the fact that there are over 70,000 refugees from Ukraine who are legally entitled to be here, and another 19,000 asylum seekers who are legally entitled to be here, and the number of people who aren’t entitled to be here, ie - illegal immigrants, is about 20,000… and of those, they’re not entitled to anything, so they’re definitely not putting any pressure on housing or public services or anything else.

As for that whole idea of your being told illegal immigrants were all doctors and nurses, you didn’t believe that in the first place, you’re not stupid, and it doesn’t do your argument any favours pretending you’re that stupid that you have been the victim of deception. It isn’t even an argument.

You’re not supporting anyone, as a taxpayer or otherwise, that’s entirely the responsibility of the State, and you’ve already declared that you’re fine with people who are legally entitled to be here, so whatever point you’re now making about asylum seekers nullifies your earlier statement - asylum seekers are not illegal immigrants. They’re quite the opposite, because they’re making themselves known to the authorities. Illegal immigrants try and avoid detection by the authorities. It’s why asylum seekers have been granted permission to access the labour market in search of employment since 2018, contrary to your belief that you as a taxpayer are supporting them.

You’re not paying anyone’s legal fees either. What they’re doing is entirely legal, something I thought you were ok with, and it’s fair, because asylum seekers are entitled to appeal the decision to reject their application. It wouldn’t be a fair system if they weren’t. Course you’re not alone in wanting a fair system where people come here legally, I don’t see anyone arguing that people should be able to come here illegally, that’s an entirely different issue, and the authorities don’t want that situation as much as you or I don’t want it either because it means people are vulnerable to being exploited and abused and they have no means to seek protection or legal recourse because they’re not entitled to be here in the first place.

The more common terms for that sort of behaviour where illegal immigrants are exploited in various industries, are human trafficking and modern slavery -

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/28/ireland-human-trafficking-council-of-europe-report

The consequences of the Labour Court’s decisions may prove extremely severe for non-EEA migrant employees without immigration permissions. The Labour Court’s decisions strongly suggest those employees without valid immigration permissions will be prevented from bringing employment rights claims through the statutory bodies set up to deal with such claims.

https://www.arthurcox.com/knowledge/labour-court-decides-that-migrant-workers-without-valid-immigration-permissions-cannot-bring-complaints-to-the-wrc-and-labour-court/

See? You’re not paying for anything, and the system is entirely fair, and illegal immigrants aren’t putting any pressure on anything, they aren’t entitled to the same employment rights as people who are entitled to be here. Illegal immigrants are not entitled to anything, essentially, which is why your whole argument about the 20,000 or so that are estimated to be here (because there is no way of knowing the actual number), just doesn’t have anything to do with the people who are entitled to be here, whether they’re Ukrainian refugees, or non-Ukrainian asylum seekers, or taxpayers (as if you can roll all taxpayers into one group either). According to yourself, you’re ok with them, even though you’re also complaining about you as a taxpayer have to support anyone else, even though there’s no truth whatsoever in that claim either. Ireland’s taxation system just doesn’t function like that -

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance, however, told TheJournal.ie that there is no plan to ringfence funding raised by the tax for initiatives targeted at reducing obesity in the Irish public.

The spokesperson said: “The Department of Health is responsible for developing an evaluation framework for the sugar tax, which will provide evidence on the efficacy of the tax from a public health perspective.

“Hypothecation (or the ring-fencing of taxes for specific and related purposes) is not a feature of the Irish tax system in general.

https://www.thejournal.ie/sugar-tax-revenue-5212076-Sep2020/

That’s the reason why an amnesty was offered to people who are here illegally, it wasn’t just to flush them out of hiding, it was to ensure they were given the opportunity to become citizens of Ireland and continue to contribute to the Irish economy while also having the same rights to be protected in employment and become legitimate taxpayers just like your good self, so that they too can enjoy the benefits of being an Irish citizen as recognised by the State in the same way as you and I already are, regardless of anyone else’s opinions that they’re not entitled to be here, opinions which have no foundation whatsoever in Irish law which they claim to care about so much.

More fool them.

People thought that little scrap in 1914 would be over by Xmas.

What baffles is that there doesn’t seem to be any heat on O’Gorman at all from the opposition and the media. Paschal is under pressure at the moment, Damien English had to resign his position a few weeks ago over failing to declare ownership of a house during an application for planning permission.... neither of these two incidents has had any impact any people’s day to day lives, burn O’Gorman’s actions will permanently change the structure and social fabric of this country.

Anyone with any sense at all could see that his tweets in various languages promising all kinds was pie in the sky nonsense, but it would still encourage wannabe economic migrants to come here, when we already had enough of a pull factor as it was. Now in a complete u-turn, they’re not even going to get a tent when they arrive, causing even more tension amongst the “refugee” class and encouraging them to turn to crime.

If you were already worried about these men, I’m sure you haven’t seen anything yet.

In a referendum in 2004 80% of the Irish population voted otherwise.

We need to build 62,000 units a year according to a report in the Irish Times. It's double what we previously thought.

With opposition TDs from Labour, Sinn Fein, People Before Profit routinely objecting to large apartment developments (which we need) , will they just shut up about inward migration or else embrace the changes of inward migration... that is to say, high rise high density towns and cities.

Inward migration will increase our carbon emissions.

So is the Greens in favour of inward migration or not?

Unbelievable.

I think that's just a bit pessimistic. At the current rate of arrivals, rough sleeping is set to double in 12 days in Dublin and increase by about 100 about every 12 days thereafter. That is not something that you can ignore.

If there is no policy change and arrivals continue, then we will see this turn into a full blown political crisis. Government seemingly can only effectively move in a crisis because suddenly things can be done that previously were "impossible". All the nonsense about legal obstacles and international obligations (that no other country pays much heed to) can get cast aside in the name of expediency and necessity. Realists will eventually have to take the reigns from the idealists.

It doesn't matter how many we build, we're never going to have enough if we're going to have unlimited numbers coming in.

That's a fair point - you certainly wouldn't want 50,000 of them. But the numbers of modular homes being built currently seem very much on the low side.