Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings and threadbans - updated 11/5/24*

And our schools ARE struggling. They were struggling already with 1000s of classes with more than 30 kids in the class which is bottom of the league in the EU.

No class should have more than 24 kids. The target is actually 20 kids per class.

When you hear stuff about the 'quality of Irish education' it really doesnt stack up that well at all.

https://www.buzz.ie/news/irish-news/primary-school-classroom-ratios-27664072?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

It does seem to be slipping, if some comments here are anything to go by.

My experience is that people in Ireland understand that our standard of living is artificially inflated by corporation tax receipts on revenue generated outside of Ireland. To pull up the drawbridge would be a very bad idea until we can balance the books without those extraordinary receipts from FMNCs. That gravy train will not last for much longer.

Immigrants are generally good for the economy. If you have the smarts to make it to the far-most rock on the edge of Europe you have something to offer the economy. We didn't have to pay for the hospital you were born in, the house you grew up in, the school you were educated in and we get your income tax revenues for as long as you stay and maybe you retire in your country of origin.

Meanwhile many of the eijets objecting to immigrants are doing so because they see them as competing for welfare services. Net drain on the economy, wish they'd emigrate.

Ah I see.. now that the "1850s" argument has failed, you are trying to drag in legal and productive migration to muddy the waters. Ok then...

I doubt there's very many working in the multinationals you refer to who arrived off the plane with no passport, or in the back of a container, or who skipped through multiple countries first to get here and claim asylum.

No, those other migrants came here legally, with skills to offer and/or a job to come to, and have indeed contributed positively to our tax take and society. No one has any problem with that and I challenge you to find a post that does. Those folks are not the issue being discussed here.

But you already know that of course!

For people claiming asylum there is a legal process to decide if they have the right to stay or not.

If you are objecting to that process then "Hello Suellen Braverman", take your manure with you.

No

Legal obligations to accept people as refugees are nothing to do with assessing people to see if they are refugees or not. Sorry you are getting 2 completely things mixed up.

I agree in principle with all of this, except the last paragraph.

We should look after Ukrainians, or any other GENUINE refugees, insofar as is realistic and sustainable given all of the other challenges we face in this country, and not at the expense of limiting, denying or otherwise negatively impacting those same essential services and supports needed by our native and existing legal citizens.

Charity begins at home and we have more than enough problems to deal with right here. I have sympathy for the Ukrainian situation of course, but let's not forget that they have a vast country to seek refuge in, not to mention all the others they must pass through to get to Ireland.

We can only do so much, and we absolutely have no room for welfare shoppers or economic migrants who have no needed skills to offer or jobs lined up.

We absolutely have no place for those who destroy their documents or turn up in the back of containers from France, or whom abuse our hospitality by committing serious crimes. All of these should be escorted to the airport and put on a plane back to wherever they arrived from.

My main point would be though that we don't have a particularly high intake of refugees compared to any other country in Europe. For much of the period between 2010 and 2020, the number of asylum seekers was very much on the low side compared to other EU states. I'm scratching my head that being 'anti-refugee' seems to be a thing in Ireland or that we have seen protests outside direct provision centres and hotels this year.

It does seem like people are deliberately conflating the housing / accommodation crisis with the refugee issue, when they are two completely different subjects. Nearly all asylum seekers live in state accommodation (direct provision centres, hostels, hotels, army barracks etc), not in houses or apartments. Every single country in Europe has asylum centres and a refugee population. The protests here almost seem to be suggesting that we are some sort of outlier.

Invariably they turn out to be the same thing. Certainly a majority of people who claim asylum in any given country usually have their claim granted and are then classed as refugees.

We have a legal system in place to deal with asylum seekers and if it's not working that's on us not the refugees.