Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is important to acknowledge the dire circumstances many of those seeking protection in Ireland have experienced, both in their home countries and on their journeys here. We need to remember these are people seeking protection and safety. They have come to our country for help because it is too difficult or dangerous to stay in their own for many reasons, such as violence, war or extreme poverty. Many are forced to leave because of their sexual orientation or gender, or because of the consequences of climate change and other natural disasters.

In discussing this issue and the issue of services, we often forget the people, people who have felt so unsafe they have had to leave their homes and often their families, friends, work and communities in search of protection. In an issue dominated by talk of the importance of community, we somehow fail to recognise how hard it must be to leave your community, to have no community, to feel isolated and alone and to take a chance, often risking your own life and leaving everything in the hope of getting something better. These people and their experiences often get lost in the numbers and disagreements over services.

There is no doubt the issue of lack of services, particularly in rural communities, is serious and needs to be addressed urgently. Sadly, this has been an issue for many years, long before people seeking protection came to these communities. Should they leave tomorrow, the issue would remain. All of us from rural Ireland know this well. We have been forgotten by the Government for years and nothing has changed, except now we are being encouraged to punch down rather than up by some with malicious and harmful intent who are attempting to exploit the public's concerns and use them to stoke hatred. They do this under the guise of Irishness and nationalism, yet the ideas they spread could not be more anti-Irish. Emigration has been a massive part of Irish history and identity, and to ignore this aspect of ourselves is to ignore what it means to be Irish. Emigration defined Irish identity 200 years ago and has continued to define us ever since.

Immigrants to our country are just looking for the opportunity for a better quality of life. We have never been denied this anywhere we went, so why should we deny anyone else this opportunity? The opportunity is not one-sided. Many of our services are operating in crisis mode, particularly the healthcare and housing sectors. As well as this, we face many skills shortages, with employers unable to fill key positions. We need more people to fill this gap and revitalise our rural areas. This is our opportunity to do so and all it requires is forward thinking from Government.

Data from the Central Statistics Office issued at the end of last year showed immigrants have played a vital role in our recent economic success, filling just over half of the 100,000 additional jobs created in the past year. More than 64,000 people left Ireland in the year to April 2023, a 14% increase on the previous year. More than half were aged between 25 and 44. This is a significant part of our workforce and there is no doubt many left because of difficulties getting housing.

That workforce still needs to be replaced, however, and the Government now has the opportunity to fill that gap, while at the same time giving many people the opportunity of making a better life for themselves. We need to realise that division and tensions within our communities are not the way forward and will not address the lack of vital services. We need to realise that those sparking these divisions and spreading misinformation do not care about communities they seek to divide. Many are not even from those communities themselves.

The sad reality is that the State plays a role in this division, subtly at times and more obviously at other times. Culture wars stop communities organising around things that actually matter to them, such as housing, employment and even the climate crisis which forces much of the migration in the first place and will only continue to raise immigration numbers. It is predicted there could be 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050, with people being forced to flee due to desertification, rising sea levels and a lack of clean drinking water.

As long as we are pointing the finger at vulnerable people, we are not organising around the things that matter and pointing the finger towards those who are actually at fault. We have a Government that is operating on huge surpluses. If there is not expenditure in communities, it is not because of asylum seekers but because of lack of Government action.

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