Ireland is not full. We don’t have an immigration problem. We have a capacity problem. And that’s because of a decade of enforced austerity and low public investment after our financial crisis. We have chronic housing shortages, critical infrastructure gaps and public services near breaking point.
Rightly, Ireland has acted in solidarity with Ukrainians fleeing war. In addition, the number of people seeking asylum in Ireland hit a record in 2022. Arrivals from both sources have slowed in 2023, but together amount to a 2% jump in our population in just 18 months. Yes, this exacerbates our capacity problem. But, Ireland is not full. We have one of the lowest population densities in Europe.
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