The big question: Is Ireland willing to accept lower economic growth to cut immigration? |
Ireland’s debate on immigration keeps going around in circles. There is a general feeling that the country needs to “tighten up” on the numbers coming here, in common with a mood across Europe that has led to a new EU migration pact.
But there is also a complete failure to face up to the real choices. Tánaiste Simon Harris misses no opportunity to say the Government will not shy away from the debate about immigration, but neither he nor any of his colleagues spell out the implications and trade-offs.
You can argue back and forth about whether senior politicians such as Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan are responding to public concern or helping to create it. It is all a bit of an echo chamber.
But, either way, a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on Thursday showed the public overestimate the number of migrants in the population – feeling they account for 28 per cent of the population rather than the official figure of 22 per cent, underestimate their level of education and the number who are at work.
The ESRI study highlights particularly........