Letters

Dismissing concerns about immigration

We cannot pretend that dramatic increases in population do not have social and economic consequences

Fri Feb 09 2024 - 00:09

Sir, – In her article “Immigration keeps the country running. Why is it being framed as something to be ‘tackled’?” (Opinion & Analysis, February 5th), Una Mullally asks us not to conflate immigration with the housing and asylum seeker crises. This appears naive, as the housing crisis is one of supply and demand.

You cannot simply remove the demand side of the equation because it might lead to some difficult ideological discussion. Perhaps she should have read another article in Monday’s edition, where Michael O’Flynn reminds us that “there is already a shortage of 300,000 homes to buy and 100,000 units to rent” (Business, Opinion, February 5th). This deficit was built up over 10 years as our population grew by more than 20 per cent. Pointing this out is not anti-migrant, racist, or xenophobic; it’s just a fact. Given our current annual maximum output of about 40,000 units, we are unlikely to have enough housing in 10 years for today’s population, never mind the forecast 25 per cent increase in our population by the end of this decade. Again, this is not hate speech, but primary school mathematics.

We cannot pretend that dramatic increases in population do not have social and economic consequences or that it does not raise “issues” that need to be tackled. Such a dismissive, head in the sand approach only serves to drive the conversation underground, sending people with genuine questions towards misinformation and far-right ideologies. What is required are facts, open dialogue, acknowledgement of issues and concrete plans for the future.

As we approach next summer’s elections, all parties will have no choice but to articulate their long-term strategy for Ireland’s demographics, and how they believe that will impact their proposed policies for society, the economy, health, education, housing, climate action and public service infrastructure. – Yours, etc,

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SEAN MOONEY,

Raheny,

Dublin 5.