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

Maybe not anarchy, life will go on but never as before ….Ireland will basically be like an extended statelet of the US and all the crap that goes with it

Housing Agency reports have included a dissection of applications for years. 2023 was the highest increase in non-EEA nationals I was able to find.

https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/289056/3455b50b-1971-4f74-8cb9-ce88e3608529.pdf#page=null

Equally as mad!

If you can't afford it, that's too bad. I'd like to fly first class anywhere, ever, but I can't, and that's life.

If you're in receipt of social housing, in a building that has a gym, you're doing better than someone in social housing in a 'lively' housing estate. If that gym comes at a cost to every other inhabitant in the building then up your boll1x, deal with it. Has the world gone mad or what?

I'm sorry to say the electorate should have punished the incumbents much, much more at the European elections.

They have been emboldened and they don't give a f.

They feel they've nothing to fear.

Leo even triumphantly gave "five fingers" to the far right.

Punished how?

With current levels of support, no national govt can be formed without 2 of the 3 major parties.

All 3 major parties are pro asylum immigration and the party that isnt in power is the most left leaning of all 3!

How would a "punishing" vote in the locals change anything?

You can say vote for independents, but thats just lip service because independents are not going to form, nor lead, a govt.

I am not having a go or criticising your view by the way, just trying to point out that for those that seek a change to the asylum policy, there isnt a political choice in kind.

Well in such a situation you do indeed vote independent.

What you should not do is blindly vote for incumbents or even worse SF, PBP etc

You are not even giving them reason to pause.

SF at least paused to have a think about what they are doing wrong.

No need for the rest to do any such thing.

I'm just not that sure tbh - The Locals/EU elections were not really a good way to gauge the political sentiment of the electorate (a dancing jockey was elected to the EU ffs) which is a storyline you'd expect to see in a Fr Ted Christmas special. The locals, = pothole fixers

The unbelievable kicking they got with the two referendums would be a far better barometer IMO and completely put the sh!ts up them. That basically had the lads in grey suits knocking on Leo's door. I also think the Govt know this and that's why they're still desperately trying to control the media, and spinning the general narrative around this total cluster**** of a situation.

We also have the proven decades old phenomenon of 'an electorate being simply fed up with the same party' being in Govt for 13/14 years in the mix. Contrary to what our Govt friends (that frequent the site the odd time *cough's*) might think, it's not a done deal at all.

My own personal opinion is that the country is seething. Where will they go?…I don't know just yet. The date hasn't been called and therefore we don't know who's running

Having observed and noted years of immigration, the systems around it, the deep impact of it on towns and villages around Ireland, and as I live in such a town, it seems to me that the subtly "seething" movement against mass immigration in Ireland has one very obvious, but crucial, issue. Optics.

The Optics surrounding the movement is probably THE most important factor and will contribute hugely to its success or failure. It's the elephant in the room. In fact, until this aspect of the Optics of the movement is addressed, no amount of burning businesses will ever make any difference whatsoever.

An accent can be a funny thing. It can make or break you in an interview, lengthen or shorten that important phonecall, project a mental picture of your entire up-bringing to a wider audience or either attract those curious individuals not yet on your page, or repulse them.

Let me explain. The vast majority of the population in this country, who have the absolute most political and socio-economic clout, do not live anywhere near Dublin City. They live in the countryside or in the smaller towns and around Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny, Sligo and the main tourist areas such as Westport and Wexford and right down along the entire Atlantic Way.

When any of these people hear a strong Dublin accent, of any kind, they switch off. Immediately. They don't care about Coolock, or what occurs there. They don't give a hoot about what happens in any area whatsoever inside the M50. To them, a bunch of "Howy-izz" attacking the Gardai with that grating accent has exactly the same effect as two positive poles of a magnetic drawing together. Repulsive. Sure, they may have their own issues with immigration, as we do here in our particular town, but the Optics of ( and I mean no disrespect to any Dubs, but it must be noted) a " scumbag" scrounger in the dole hurling rocks at the Gardai at 11am on a Monday morning, regardless of the Social issue, garners zero support.

Look what happened with the protests in Newtown Mountkennedy. Facebook and YouTube was littered with Shorts of the same inner-city idiots and their chum(p)s harassing immigrants coming and going around the Centre in that fabulously influential accent for weeks on end. Clearl non-local, what happened in the end? Nothing. Nothing at all. (Well, that's not quite true, as said some individuals seems to have disappeared from public life recently.)

Ireland can be slow to change, but we do change, and monumentally so. Sometimes we, as a country and as citizens, need to be at the precipice of disaster before we wake up and instigate the will of the people. We have forced many governments to backtrack and U-Turn on countless issues over the years but we have instigated such change politically, relatively peacefully and with very good Optics. In other words, what way do we want a protest against reckless immigration to look, to the greater population, so that they can both participate and sleep well at night without the fear that they will be known as a racist. Optics.

Would you stand side by side in with the Coolock crowd in protest. No way.

Would you stand side by side in protest with your local shopkeeper who's daughter is followed home from school by a bunch of bored Middle-Eastern young adults? Abso-feckin-lutely! Why is that though? Because it feels better.

Every single one of you out there, regardless of where you stand politically, regardless of what you say publicly, regardless of where you live, or how you voted, and especially if you have children, knows that Ireland is facing a major existential issue at the moment. If you cannot see why, then you need to visit any rural town in Ireland, any evening and observe. Speak with the local community. Visit the local Supervalue store ( a barometer of Irish society) and ask the owner what he thinks of Irelands immigration policy. Ask about services, infrastructure, safety. Ask how their society has changed for them almost over night. Hell, I'll PM you the name of my nearest town and you can go and see for yourself.

Time's Up. It is my firm belief that we, as a society, as a society that we have treasured and protected and from which we have emerged as ambassadors of peace, progression, openness and Welcoming and all those counter-intuitive virtues that fly in the face of what we are, well, facing, must advocate for immediate change in a manner that catches our governments' attention. It must be a peaceful way, but impactful.

Just reading back on what I've written, I know that it sounds like a MAGA rant and it is the exact opposite of how I would normally think, but I'm old enough, in my 50's to have lived through some serious situations in this country and this, my good friends, tops the list.

Back to Optics. It's a flammable issue. But people will not mandate for a change in government policy unless either, or both, of these things occur.

1. The Optics surrounding the protest are acceptable from a moral and societal perspective.

2. Something occurs that shakes our society into doing something about it.

Let's just hope we can achieve No.1 before No.2 happens.

As i don't give a crap about this account anymore:

I lived in Ireland, Kilkenny for 10 years 2006-2016, it was all good. Nice people, decent jobs, had my bike stolen only once ;). Last year I came to close bank account, visit some friends, and to put it mildly - Ireland is now fucked, and from what i see this is only beginning.

I don’t know if we’re fucked but our lack of any leadership is worrying. There is so much upset from local communities and the government are nowhere to be seen. “Community engagement “ is not happening, the rest of us are just seeing barriers being put up with no other solutions offered and if the reply from my local TD is accurate, there’s no plans for another 2 years until the EU migration pact will come into effect. And what makes me very frustrated is there is no one else to vote for. They all have the same bloody policies

I can understand people thinking Ireland is "Fucked"

We're not in a great place at the moment. Our housing emergency is getting worse, our health care is probably in the worse state we've seen to date with UHL being a prime example and the worse of them all illegal immigration.

This country is at a cross roads with immigration, this government is forcing unvetted males onto local communities causing deep anxiety and despair. This government has a choice follow European counties have done such as Denmark, Hungary etc but they have done nothing to stop this blight and instead making it worse and worse.

The government arent listening to the Irish people and instead listening to people who have a vested interest in this blight continuing such the NGOs and people who are making money out of this.

Before we know it the general election will be soon upon us but I know what's going to happen in between, the government will do a give away budget and will do something as a token gesture on immigration to which they hope idiotic voters will be fooled but I don't think they know how much they're hated at the moment, this will be like the referendum all over.

Unfortunately we have no opposition party who is going to take advantage of this, most people will be voting for independents but some voters like to see the world burn and will still vote in 1 party FF/FG (who are the fooling at this point that they are 2 separate parties) and they will get into a power again but hopefully will a very large bloody nose.

Ireland as we know is dying, this governments immigration policy is leading the race to the bottom and soon enough we'll be like Sweden in their immigration crisis.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/simon-harris-interview-taoiseach-says-immigrants-will-soon-be-asked-to-pay-for-state-provided-services/a719288212.html

Harris is at it again regarding immigrants - he knows it's a vote winner. Immigrants will be asked to pay for state provided services - well BIG DEAL. Isn't that what the rest of us do?

What Harris is going to do routinely do before the elections is to appear to act tough on immigrants (with the emails going into the indo and IT) whilst simultaneously behind the screens ensuring they are well looked after. Note the issue also - the issue is "immigrants have to pay for things" and not "we are halting the number of immigrants coming into Ireland because there is nowhere to house our own citizens". He'll still remain as an EU bootlicker on immigration but this will work with a heck of a lot of dumb voters out there.

In fairness to Harris he's not the only one up to this. Mary Lou is at the same - put immigrants in rich areas. . . . and that's it. Not a word on capping numbers - too afraid. For both of them it's all about votes. In MLMcD's case it's about protecting SFs working class base.

You cannot have change when literally everyone in the current Dáil supports the current policy on immigration and that is likely to remain the case after the GE. People before Profit lambast the lack of housing and support unfettered immigration. To them there is no connection. They literally SUPPORT a policy of profiteering landlords and hoteliers at the expense of people in local communities. If anything they're profit before people.

FF - I don't even know if they have a policy. Their forever leader, Martin, doesn't do stuff like policies.

Labour?

Ireland is a very welcoming country. There basically hasn't been a bad word said about immigrants for the first two decades of this century as we went from a small number (% wise) to a number greater than the UK. The show, however, is over. The country is irreversibly changed and there's no going back because there's no one going to advocate such a policy.

What will the future hold? Mass numbers of emigrant Irish born and continued numbers of immigrants because this is the policy of FF/FG/GP/Lab/Left/Media/Official Ireland. It is a deliberate policy.

Sunday Times article today - Interesting read

Not pay-walled (for me anyway) on 1st view, but is on 2nd view so maybe a 1 article free as they're running a special sub offer atm