Tougher immigration rules favoured by majority of Irish voters, latest poll shows
Most people in Ireland are in favour of tougher rules on immigration to reduce the large numbers coming to a country struggling with a housing crisis.
Six out of ten voters, or 59 per cent, want a “more closed policy”, with 16 per cent backing a “more open” policy, according to Saturday’s Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll.
Tensions over immigration have been building in Ireland ahead of a general election expected this year and there have been anti-migrant riots, protests and arson attacks.
Nearly half, 48 per cent, thought that immigration was on balance positive, but voters were worried about the impact on public services and housing. Some 35 per cent said it was a negative.
More than two thirds (69 per cent) said they would have “some concerns” about asylum seeker accommodation in their area, the poll found.
Immigration to Ireland leapt by 31 per cent in the year leading to April 2023, according to the last annual review of migration by the Economic and Social Research Institute.
Between April 2022 and April 2023, 141,600 immigrants entered Ireland, the highest since it peaked at 151,100 in 2007.
The almost 2 per cent population increase, to just under 5.3 million was the biggest since 2008, after emigration was taken into account.
Labour shortages, the recovery from Covid and the war in Ukraine were all factors in the increase in people arriving in a country struggling with one of Europe’s worst housing shortages.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, warned in October that the country was at the limit of the support it could offer refugees. The government was forced to shelter some migrants in tents.
Dublin tightened its rules for Ukrainian refugees at the start of this year, placing a 90 day restriction on how long they could benefit from free housing and a cut in benefits for those in social housing.
There have been a string of arson attacks on premises linked to migrant accommodation in a country with a long and painful history of immigration.
There were riots in November last year, when an Algerian man who had been granted Irish citizenship allegedly stabbed three schoolchildren and a teacher in Dublin.
Sinn Fein is on course to win the election and form the next government. Saturday’s Irish Times poll found that Sinn Fein’s supporters were much tougher on immigration than other parties.
They were the only ones who believe that immigration has been on balance a negative for Ireland.
Sinn Fein’s leadership has focused on housing, and a promise to build more homes, rather than migration.
On Thursday, the latest poll showed support for Left-wing Sinn Fein fell six percentage points to 28 per cent, which is its lowest ebb in three years.
The former political wing of the IRA is still eight points clear of Fianna Fail and nine clear of Fine Gael, the two parties in the centre-Right coalition government.
Carol Nolan, a former Sinn Fein member, is an independent member of the Irish parliament with the Rural Independent Group.
She said: “I think this is going to be the number one election issue. And I do believe that the electorate will punish the government for their failure to listen to them on this issue and failure to represent them on this issue.”
