Sharon Keogan: Says mass migration is worsening housing crisis

Colleagues, we are keep hearing that Ireland is a small country with big ambitions, but ambition without honesty is just spin. On immigration and housing, honesty means admitting a simple arithmetic truth. The volume of arrivals year after year is colliding with a housing system that is barely delivering the homes we need. Let me be absolutely clear. Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis that is now physically impossible to fix under the current immigration policy. In the year to April 2024, 149,200 people immigrated to Ireland. That is the highest number in 17 years, and this is not a one-off. It is the third year in a row that over 100,000 people have arrived. Let us look at housing. Between 2016 and 2022, just 93,128 dwellings were built. That is over six years. We are bringing in more people annually than we are building homes in half a decade. The maths do not add up. The policy does not add up. I have said it before, we are an island nation with only two major airports. Enforcing our border and operating a stricter migration policy could and should be simple. But it appears that no one in this government is willing to do the right thing. And why? Because it is a hard decision. Because the right policy would mean that some unfortunate people would have to be turned away. Colleagues, making hard decisions for the sake of the common good is the essence of politics and of political power. And it is exactly what we have been elected to do. If you cannot bear hard decisions, then step down and return to civilian life. This is not some student council or local book club committee. This is the Oireachtas. And what we say and do here affects all our lives. It affects every Irish family trying to find a roof over their heads. It affects every emigrant missing home and wondering if they will ever come back. And while we are importing people, we are exporting our own. In the same year, 34,700 Irish citizens left the country. That is the highest level of emigration in a decade. And it is not just any 100,000. That is 103,000 of our best and brightest now living in Australia alone. That is more than the population of Limerick City. These are overwhelmingly young, working age Irish people at the prime of their lives, forced to go to the other side of the earth, away from their homes and their families, because this government has rendered their country unlivable. And then the same government turns around and says we need to take in over 140,000 new arrivals because we do not have the workers. We did have the workers, but certain elements in this country did not want to pay them the wages they needed. And other elements wanted tenants whom they could charge higher rents. That is the truth. That is the rot at the heart of this policy. And where is the opposition in all of this? Where are the voices defending the Irish worker? The left who once stood for the working man and woman have become the most energetic proponents of mass migration. They have abandoned the Irish worker, the Irish family and the Irish community. They offer no real opposition, no scrutiny and no solutions. We are told that this is about compassion. But what about compassion for the people who already live here? For the pensioner who cannot afford rent? For the Irish couple priced out of their home town? For the nurse commuting two hours because there is nowhere affordable to live near the hospital. This is not sustainable. This is not compassionate. This is insane. Ireland's tradition is compassionate married to common sense. Compassion without capacity collapses into crisis. Common sense without compassion becomes cold. Today we need both. Fair admissions, firm limits and a laser focus on building enough homes. Anything less is not progressive, not conservative. It is simply irresponsible. We need to return to a policy that puts Ireland and our national wellbeing first. That puts the Irish worker first. That puts our communities first. Because if we are in crisis then we have absolutely no capacity to help others. We need to pause mass migration, reassess our capacity and build a system that works for everyone, not just for the few who profit from it. But unfortunately I am not hopeful because when our own Taoiseach Michal Martin stands up in front of the national media and claims that the statement Ireland for the Irish is tantamount to violence, something many of our nation's founders and Fianna Fáil's own party founders would have thought simple common sense, then we see the depth of our leadership's inability and unwillingness to deal with this crisis. To make things worse, anyone who attempts to raise the issue of migration is a matter for public debate is labelled far-right. The irony is that this immature approach risks polarising society, surrendering the debate to extremists and ultimately makes such claims self-fulfilling. I genuinely wonder whether many of our politicians believe what they are saying. If they do, it shows a complete failure to speak with or listen to their constituents. Of course I cannot speak for everyone, but the vast majority of Irish people protesting against mass migration whom I have spoken to hold little or no hatred of immigrants, nor of people with different fates, skin colour or backgrounds. In fact, many are themselves of immigrant background or have immigrant friends and partners. Unlike our leaders, many of those protesting or criticising our government's current open border migration policy understand the distinction between individual immigrants who deserve respect and judgement based on their character and mass migration as a government policy which should be debated openly for its impact on our society, social services and national identity. Colleagues, this is a moment for courage, for leadership, for truth. And if we continue down this road, we will lose more of our young people, deepening the housing crisis and facturing the social fabric of this country. I will not stand by and watch this happen. And I ask you, will you? Go raibh māi agat.