The National Party

Apparently their anecdotes are better than everyone else's; presumably cos it conveniently feeds into the "breaking point" narrative; of pure hearted local Irish beset by hordes of ... ... "Undocumented Men". And we all know what dem foreign men get up to.

And that's all there is, really. Invented grannies quivering in fear, a few small protests blocking traffic in Dublin, and local àssholes bothering refugees. There's no "gap in the market" here, no appetite to Other migrants; given we Irish are genetically familiar with what it is to leave a homeland for a better life, maybe it's no surprise the anti-migrant sentiment hasn't taken hold.

God knows there are legitimate questions to answer cos with the climate collapsing migration will only increase - but xenophobia for its own sake curries no favour here. There's not an ounce of proof, no matter how many tearful grannies are trotted out.

"Refugees" is an important piece of language here given the topic, while overall that poll's numbers don't translate to party support which itself illuminates; the results clearly indicates a more nuanced, complicated position than the extremists you espouse in the Irish Freedom Party or NP.

A majority also apparently show concern over our ability to give accommodation to refugees in the first place - so clearly it's more than that people don't want these arrivals; you can easily read the results that the Irish think we're taking in more than we can house - not that we don't want refugees at all. Like I said, nuances are at play here.

A majority are also frustrated the application process takes so long - and I can tell you knowing a Ukrainian colleague currently without residency as a refugee across the EU, that's a concern felt by those stuck in limbo too. Most migrants want certainty and their situation sorted, not to be stuck in a sports hall for months living off handouts. So the headline is catchy but you can't ignore the context created by the other statistics of that poll. Must seek it out, cos clearly the devil is the details.

Neither the IFP nor the NP curry support that's better described than "negligible", so even if there was a broad rejection of refugee numbers as an absolute, the public aren't buying what those 2 hardliners are selling. Not least the National Party's own mandate that _all_ immigration be halted, and deportation conducted of all migrants.

Now that's lunacy - and economic suicide just from a pragmatic PoV.