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

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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,437 ✭✭✭✭Goldengirl


    At least I don't continue on regardless if I don't know something and freely admit it.

    It takes more to stand up and admit a mistake than slyly snipe at someone behind their back for having the good grace to apologise .



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Augme


    Everyone has benefitted from it, companies, employers, employees and even the unemployed. No is going to argue otherwise on that. Socially Ireland has massively benefited from it and it forced Ireland to move away from the Catholic churches iron grip on our culture.


    To your early point about Irish people not knowing how the EU works or how who are Commissioners are - if Irish people are too lazy to bother finding out then that's not the EU fault. Also, we have a history of sending over MEPs who are questionable, at best, in terms of their competence and ability. More often then not it represents a protest vote of sorts.


    I really understand why feel the changes from the EEC to the EU was such a significant difference. Even under the EEC there always had to be significant alignment with legislation and laws across all members.


    How we have/haven't exercised our opt outs ha been solely down the the TDs Irish people have elected. That's not the EUs fault.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,278 ✭✭✭bloopy


    I guess my biggest fear is that when the realisation comes, it is then that we will see a big swing to extreme politics - left or right

    It will make the current far right bogeyman seem like adorable kittens in comparison.

    I just don't want to see people reminiscing in 15 years time how easy we all had it when it was just Trump and Wilders we had to deal with.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,131 ✭✭✭Mr. teddywinkles


    Maybe the tossers know already. Corruption at an all time high in this place.



  • Registered Users Posts: 892 ✭✭✭JPCN1


    "Many people don't realise that 70 percent of legislation comes from Europe and that the Dail are only transposing what's decided"

    Sean Kelly, FG, MEP in and interview in Dec 23.

    He was being asked about running in Kerry but wants to stay where the action is!!! Couldn't agree more that our politicians are more concerned with been seen as good Europeans rather than governing for the people who elect them and pay them. Until that changes we're in dire straits.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,453 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    Exactly.

    We all make mistakes but few of us are brave enough to admit it.

    Credit to you.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,437 ✭✭✭✭Goldengirl


    This I wonder about.

    Something @Spanish Eyes said also..

    Is it that people who are looking for cheaper breaks are not indispensable but rather those people are not holidaying at home at the present tine because of high cost of living and reduced disposable income?

    Maybe thats why the economic heads aren't jumping up and down about tourism?

    They are as Spanish Eyes said keeping the higher end luxury market open.

    However the local tourism, restaurants, bars etc rely on ordinary weekend breakers who venture out of their hotels to keep their businesses going...as @Furze99 said.

    High end hotels tend to keep their customers closer to home.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,437 ✭✭✭✭Goldengirl


    The link Bloopy was replying to in that post was from the UK not Ireland.

    As Blue Sky says the Irish government already buy private housing for Social /affordable housing from developers.



  • Registered Users Posts: 28,860 ✭✭✭✭_Kaiser_


    That exactly highlights the problem with the EU and our participation in it. I know we have little enough real control over TDs and Councillors as it is, but allowing a bloated often fractured entity like the EU to be deciding the majority of our laws is fundamentally at odds with what we expect of our national representatives.



  • Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Gussoe


    Even if we went against the current group-think and decided: screw EU rules, we won't take in any more AS.

    What can the EU do? Suspend our voting rights? We are net contributors today so we couldn't we just retaliate and not contribute?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 28,860 ✭✭✭✭_Kaiser_


    It's not even that we have to go against EU rules, we just need to exercise our already existing rights to opt out.

    But yes, ultimately there's very little consequences that could be enforced on us unless we allow it. We regularly read of eastern members pushing back or just saying no and while there might be some moral outrage from some of the others, ultimately an acceptable (for both sides) settlement is reached - after all, it's supposed to be a coalition of friends and allies not a dictatorship where the economically strong members decide for the rest (even though that's exactly what happened in the financial crisis).

    I'm not saying we should leave the EU (I think it'll collapse on its own for the same reasons I mentioned earlier and if/when that does happen we shouldn't be the last ones left), but we should certainly push our own interests more just as those other states do.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,764 ✭✭✭ArthurDayne


    I find your opinions on the EU very odd, I must say. In one post you say the EU decides most of our laws — which is a real can of worms statement right there — making out like the EU is an imposing overlord, the next you're telling us "oh well Hungary just says no and everything is fine" and all we have to do is emulate that. It's almost like there are two different EUs in your head, the bullying controlling one that makes us do bad stuff, and the flexible cool one that Hungary exists in.

    So which is it then?



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,581 ✭✭✭jackboy


    There are companies buying up houses for sale in ireland to accommodate asylum seekers. They are getting vast sums of tax payers money for supplying such accommodation and these companies can outbid most Irish people looking for a home. So by default, the Irish government are taking control of huge numbers of houses and Irish will never be allowed to live in them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Augme


    It's not just EU rules. We have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights so we would he violating that as well. There are very few countries in the world who refuse to take in Asylum Seekers. Ireland taking the bold step of following North Korea's lead would certainly be a very interesting step to take.


    As for the wider implications of a decision like that, one could only speculate obviously, but I do the benefits would outweigh the positives.



  • Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Gussoe


    Remove whatever offending legislation exists from our own Statute Books. Invite a Constitutional Crisis and let the people of Ireland sort it out.



  • Registered Users Posts: 72 ✭✭thoker


    now we no longer benefit time to leave. If the Brits, Norwegian and Swiss can survive without the EU so can we.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Augme


    Would be much easier to just have an Irexit vote. Going down the path of withholding contributions etc will jut lead to removal anyway.



  • Registered Users Posts: 72 ✭✭thoker


    I don't care one bit. North Korea isn't the only country not accepting economic migrants so is Indonesia pop. 260 million



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,437 ✭✭✭✭Goldengirl


    So are you saying that the government are buying housing for refugees? Not just for general housing needs?

    Or that corporations using tax loopholes are buying them up and renting them out? Confused.

    Again the post that the poster I mentioned was getting upset over was one which was based in the UK not here, about UK government actually buying homes for refugee families. Secondly, baldbear mentioned in another post that UNHCR had '' recommended " this to the government.

    Not that it was policy here.

    Is this actually happening or are people just worrying about something happening in the UK and thinking it mught happen here?

    Again I don't know.. Just asking for some clarity.



  • Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Gussoe


    Not likely as there is no method to expel a countries membership. Anyway, an Irexit vote isn't the right option here. It sets up a lopsided Ireland vs the EU confrontation, where they have all the cards. We need a method by which the EU are presented as the baddies, leveraging the AS crisis as trigger, and people around the publics of the EU, will have empathy for us.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,581 ✭✭✭jackboy


    Corporations are buying them up and the government are paying the Corporations to accommodate asylum seekers. Not a problem in normal times but catastrophic in a housing crises. The vast majority of Irish people will never be able to outbid these companies.

    Like the Companies buying up hotels these likely have political connections and the tax payers money they are receiving is vastly higher than necessary.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,453 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    We will always be welcoming to refugees. Sure, we need to do more on infrastructure and support and the current govt have got that part wrong.

    But as a nation we will always be welcoming.



  • Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Gussoe




  • Registered Users Posts: 3,453 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    I am sure you are not anti immifration, but perhaps feel we have not prepared ourselves properly to manage the demand.



  • Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Gussoe


    Your posting on a thread called 'Time for a zero refugee policy'. Yet you use the phrase anti-immigration. Is that bad faith posting on your part?



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,453 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    "Time for a zero policy" is a question, not a statement of fact.

    Very very few people believe it is time for a zero refugee policy.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Augme




    When other countries are taking in millions of refugees and we say we closing our door because we've taken in just over 100,000 im not sure how much empathy they will have for us tbh.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,437 ✭✭✭✭Goldengirl


    I know corporations are buying up properties to rent but never heard that it was specifically for refugees, jackboy. And with tax loopholes that are meant to be closing now after the whole Belmayne debacle.

    I agree that that activity is screwing all of us though .

    Not just people looking for affordable housing but their families /parents who still have young adults living at home unable to contribute while saving for deposits /mortgages and all the stress that that causes.

    I would like to see something concrete though before I run out the door screaming, that the government are actually paying for refugees to be housed wholesale. No offence.

    Is it not just based on need, family numbers etc like any other social housing?

    Not trying to be provocative just want to be sure..



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,453 ✭✭✭BlueSkyDreams


    The social homes the govt provides are for everyone qualifiable, including refugees. Where do you expect them to live?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,581 ✭✭✭jackboy


    Companies are buying these houses for asylum seekers only, as this is where the most profit is, by far. Its just an extension of what is going on with hotels.



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