The National Party

We know it's a regular occurrence that extremist hatemongers like Pepper make these things up

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/gardai-arrest-woman-suspicion-making-29469666

Some people are promoting these parties because the pay is good.

None of this challenges my post.

I mean, I agree with what you're saying IS happening - what I'm saying is that it's the wrong way to do it. Far-right policies getting votes is more likely to get mainstream parties adopting similar policies to attract said vote.

There are two components to the "immigration crisis"

1. - refugees from Ukraine which no one could have anticipated or planned for and which would be deeply counterproductive to refuse to deal with.

2- immigration of skilled workers to fill positions which otherwise would go unfilled. To refuse to take skilled workers would cripple the very basis of the Irish economy and leave us all poorer.

The issue of illegal immigration and other assillum seekers is minor and relatively insignificant to those other two factors.

The far right is opportunistically lumping all categories of assillum seekers into one big pot because it doesn't serve their agender to apply nuance to a complex set of issues.

The only concern at the moment seems to be immigration. There isn't one other policy or political issue being addressed and none of these parties are even trying to run on any other issue.

The correlation between heavy Twitter users and the supporters of these thicko parties is massive. As is the correlation between lonely angry men and the supporters of these thicko parties.

Immigration is a nice easy one to pitch to thickos. But once you start talking economics, environment, energy, health, transport, education etc you'll find 99% with blank faces.

No depth of knowledge and no willingness to do so.

Like someone who can play twinkle twinkle little star on the piano and calls themselves a musician.

Or Graham "let's exterminate the Jews" Carey. Not a bad sort if you park the genoicidal anti-semitism….

You make a lot of good points. Unfortunately, what invalidates your argument is the assumed correlation in your post.

Now I don’t use Twitter, nor will I be voting for far right candidates in the GE. However, I’ll be very transparent in saying that I’m very concerned about the levels of inward migration to Ireland and wish to see it significantly curtailed.

Am I a lonely, angry thicko? Well actually, I’m not. I’m happily married, have three beautiful children, plenty of friends, and a great career. I know quite a few colleagues and friends who share my concerns about immigration. They won’t vote for the national party, but they do feel unheard by the political class. This sentiment is growing in Ireland and politicians who ignore it, do so at their peril.

And you believe in the National party's stance on immigration?

Yes I agree. I did say its a massive correlation, not total.

Ive had concerns about immigration since the 90s. And when we have people sleeping in tents on city streets there clearly needs to be a change made.

But the people Im referring to are the lads who hop on trains with a bag o'cans to any old "protest", have links in their twitter bios asking for donations, aim fireworks at Garda etc. Like the crowd who were singing Ole Ole at the protest last week. No real interest apart from a day out masked behind a policital rally.

Then back to Twitter to "win" vs the woke leftie commies et al.

Gript don't survive on their paltry subscriptions since they give away access.

But there are paid far right promote rs everywhere and I have little doubt that a few pop up here once in a while.

Sensible migration policies do not result in tented encampments forming in the centre of the capital city.

Sensible migration policies do not permit an influx of spurious asylum claims, more than 80% of which are known to attribute to secondary movements.

Sensible migration policies do not mean migrant workers living in tenement-like conditions sharing bedrooms with multiple people.

Sensible migration policies do not see immigration catapulted to one of the most pressing issues for the electorate in 2024.

most of those issues are issues of housing policy not immigration.
Its a huge scandel that this government can not find accommodation for refugees which they accepted into this country and that we have such a dearth of accommodation that the skilled workers we invited to come and make us wealthy cannot find places to live.

Incorrect on so many levels. Firstly, the majority of asylum seekers are not ‘refugees’, nor were they ‘accepted’ into this country. As McEntee herself has recently stated, up to 90% are secondary movements from the UK or elsewhere. It’s a huge scandal that these spurious economic migrants are subverting the international protection system.

Secondly, why are you conflating skills-based migration with asylum seeking? Are you unable to discriminate between the two streams? We didn’t invite skilled migrants to ‘make us wealthy’ lol. There are labour shortages in some sectors. They come to grow their careers, often for a time-bound period. I know as I hire internationally for my team. The very idea that people are coming here with the altruistic intent of making Ireland wealthy is laughable frankly.

Thirdly, the overall volume and velocity of inward migration is simply way too high. Per capita, the rate is higher than the UK. This isn’t sustainable longer term. It’s not possible to keep pace with the housing demands currently placed on this country. Who do you think is going to build all of these units? Should we send Helen McEntee and Roderick O’Gorman out on block laying and sparks apprenticeships to get us started? The current volume of immigration is exacerbating an already acute housing crisis.

You seem to think I have some “inside track” with Gav Pepper or can get him to post on specific topics???

I have no connection to him, I just looked at some of his Twitter posts.

Ask him what he is doing or not doing?

1. Most migrants are categorically not ‘refugees’. The majority are EU/EEA/UK nationals, skilled migrants, students, and asylum seekers, none of whom are ‘refugees’.

2. As for those on work visas, of course they do it for their own benefit, despite the fact that the semantics of your statement above, convey otherwise. Can you quantify the net benefits to Ireland. You’ve asserted that Ireland benefits ‘massively’. Please quantify those benefits, segmented by the various regions of origins of the migrants.

3. There is a plan for dealing with refugees from Ukraine. They’re all housed to the best of my knowledge. Do you have information to the contrary? I don’t believe the encampment along the grand canal is populated by Ukrainians. Perhaps you have more information?

4. How do you expect a government to formulate a housing policy when there is very little predictability around inward migration, which admittedly is partially due to their own disastrous migration policy? Should they just target 70K units per years and hope that it’s enough? Again, I reiterate my question to you, who will build these units? Yes, housing policy is a ‘scandal’, but the severity of the issue is compounded by unfettered immigration across multiple streams.

And how do we ascertain that they are spurious asylum claims? I'm judging by this that you have no issue with those claims you feel are not spurious?