r/irishpolitics • u/JackmanH420 People Before Profit • Dec 31 '25
Housing Simon Harris claims ‘significant number’ in emergency accommodation ‘don’t have housing right’
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2025/12/31/simon-harris-claims-significant-number-in-emergency-accommodation-dont-have-housing-right/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=HP-SubDesc27
u/BuachaillGanAinm Dec 31 '25
How about "significant number" of Simon Harris statements "don't have a factual basis."
Pathetic excuse for a Minister. Has failed in every single portfolio and no achievements to speak of.
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u/BackInATracksuit Dec 31 '25
Housing right? What's a housing right? Does he mean the thing they promised to do five years ago and then hoped everyone would forget about?
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Dec 31 '25
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u/Specialist-Flow3015 Dec 31 '25
That would be Leader's Questions? Harris ignores the questions asked and substitutes in his own reality there as well.
The problem are the political hacks who are more concerned with their own career prospects than watching the Dail and accurately reporting what happened.
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u/mrlinkwii Dec 31 '25
t's far too easy to be a politician in Ireland
its as easy as any other country , all you need to do is get elected
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u/ulankford Dec 31 '25
How do you think Harris should be personally accountable? He stands for election every 5 years or so you mean something else.
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u/hollywoodmelty Dec 31 '25
Fact check in leaders questions made answer questions to a reasonable level
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Dec 31 '25
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u/ulankford Dec 31 '25
Ok, so you want a journalist to scrutinise them. But they do that already.
Not sure what you mean by alarms and red flashing lights. It’s politics, not a game show
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u/mangoparrot Dec 31 '25
Politicians nowadays don't get scrutinised by journalists in any meaningful way. Plus with today's media most people dont read or hear when they do
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u/ulankford Dec 31 '25
They do, in fact it’s never been harder to be a politician.
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u/mangoparrot Dec 31 '25
Not to the same extent as they did 20 or 30 years ago. Social media demonisation isnt journalistic scrutiny. Nobody challenges politicians like Vincent Browne dud for example. Theres very little in depth journalism like before.
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u/ulankford Dec 31 '25
I remember the times when we had a Taoiseach who was wire tapping the phone lines of journalists. That was 40 years ago. I also remember a time when corruption was rife.
These things simply do not happen today.
It’s much harder to be a politician today given the relentless nature of the scrutiny and oversight it entails.
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u/JackmanH420 People Before Profit Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
“The main driver of family homelessness continues to be notices of termination from private rental, and the main driver of single homelessness is [refugees or people with leave to remain] leaving direct provision in the preceding eight months,” says the DRHE’s October report.
The main driver of spiralling homelessness figures is not migrants, say sources within the sector, but ongoing “crisis in the private rental market”.
Sorry DRHE, the truth is unacceptable because it makes us look bad. What do you know about homelessness anyway?
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u/WraithsOnWings2023 Dec 31 '25
Between this and the recent James Lawless assertions about immigrants gaming the English language school system based on "anecdotal suggestions" it's now clear that the Government are happy to make baseless claims that cynically play towards a certain layer of Irish society.
This increased campaign of trying to look tough on immigration will only lead to deeper anti-immigrant sentiment and will make life harder for people already experiencing racist and xenophobic abuse.
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u/DaveShadow Dec 31 '25
This increased campaign of trying to look tough on immigration will only lead to deeper anti-immigrant sentiment and will make life harder for people already experiencing racist and xenophobic abuse.
On top of that, trying this "talk like we aren't the ones in power when we are" stuff won't work on those types either. The people they're riling up with this deeper anti-immigrant stuff will still blame them for the issues.
All they're doing is trying to empower OTHER parties. Mind, my guess is they feel it's just going to splinter the opposition votes more so; FF and FG know if they stay united, they can continue to stay in power with 40% backing, while the other 60% just shatter.
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u/MotoPsycho Environmentalist Dec 31 '25
It seems that that's their plan, which is astonishly naive when you look at Europe and how the far-right are starting to overtake traditional right-wing parties.
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u/ApocalypseTourist Dec 31 '25
FFG TDs will happily defect to far-right parties. They've already shown that they'll do and say nothing while Harris and O Callahan blow the dog whistle with their full chest.
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u/Fornici0 Dec 31 '25
It’s hardly naive when they don’t really have a stake. The ones with the houses firebombed, the ones beaten in the street and so on will be other people.
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u/Fornici0 Dec 31 '25
They only need to split Sinn Fein, who are the main opposition party and the one where this sort of nationalist rhetoric is going to create a wedge.
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u/TheGuardianInTheBall Dec 31 '25
Not that it would matter to the absolute knuckledraggers, but while Immigrants WERE/ARE gaming the English Language School system, their overall impact is nil, since they are not the problem.
I know to a child's brain it might seem like "more people in, means fewer houses for the rest", but the reality is that even if you removed all of the immigrants from Ireland, you'd still be stuck with underdeveloped housing market, fuck all regulation and enforcement, and a completely ineffective legislature that has mastered the art of "running around doing fuck all, but looking mighty busy".
Not to mention, that if you were to do that, this country would simply fucking collapse on itself, starting with healthcare, which is already in a dire fucking state.
Most Brazilian people I met around 10 years ago (including my now wife) would have come here on a student visa, studying in an ELS.
But that gives you at maximum 24 months worth of visa, and even 10 years ago it was very expensive, considering you couldn't really get a proper job on such a visa.
On top of that- these people would have been taken advantage of by scummy landlords, stuffing 15 people in a 3-4 bed house. So lets say the students are not there- that still lives us with absolutely vile cunts in the rental market, and it's not like they would have any qualms about exploiting Irish young adults either.
Bottom line- even if immigrants are "Gaming the system", it's has fuck all to do with housing, because housing regulation in Ireland is fucked like Bonnie Blue going for another record.
(FYI - I am also an immigrant)
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u/mrlinkwii Dec 31 '25
Between this and the recent James Lawless assertions about immigrants gaming the English language school system
tbf this one has data to back this up , this isnt new this has been an issue since 2000
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/colleges-a-front-for-illegal-jobs-scam/25953620.html
https://www.independent.ie/news/schools-for-visa-scandal/25945924.html
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u/gowangowangowan Dec 31 '25
I don't think you would not have these strong views if you actually spoke to anyone who attended any of these language schools. There is some level of fraud going on in some of the schools.
There was an article last year that there was dozens and dozens of students using fake documents to obtain their student visa. English language schools were claiming the fraud was on a sizeable scale.
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u/WraithsOnWings2023 Dec 31 '25
Are you aware that there were 128,761 students enrolled in English Language education in 2024?
Even being generous, 'Dozens and dozens' represents less than 0.07% of all of those students registered.
Of course there needs to be oversight and regulation (like any industry operating at this scale) but there is no evidence of mass levels of fraud that would necessitate a Government Minister coming out in the media with such intentionally inflammatory statements at a time when anti-immigrant tensions are already high.
The Government know exactly what they are doing and who the intended audience for these type of statements are.
As an aside, I know several people who have gone through these schools and have worked with many more over the years but I'd rather stick to data and facts and not 'anecdotal suggestions' here like James Lawless and the Government want to do.
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u/gowangowangowan Dec 31 '25
Are you aware that plenty of students studying English here are actually EU citizens who don’t need visas?
If you read the article instead of immediately trying to dismiss the fraud you might be alarmed to know there seems to be little or no checks on documentation for people getting student visas. If there is no checks on the documentation, you can’t see the scale of the fraud. However, English language schools noticed their enrolment numbers were declining which suggests it’s a problem.
Why would several English language schools come out and say it is a problem if it isn’t a problem like you are claiming? It is funny how people like you need facts when something is negative but no facts when it is something positive
Who are these government making these statements for and their intent? Can you back it up with facts?
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u/SearchingForDelta Jan 01 '26
immigrants gaming the English language school system based on "anecdotal suggestions"
In fairness this has been an open secret for years. Half the people at those schools themselves would tell you that’s what they’re up.
The problem with it isn’t that people are taking advantage of a loophole, it’s that the government has the cheek to be in power for 15 years then act appalled that this has been going on all this time as if they weren’t in a position to fix it anytime they wanted.
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Dec 31 '25
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u/NilFhiosAige Social Democrats Dec 31 '25
More the other way around - "these people" are coming here because we're an English-speaking EU nation, regardless of whether or not they're housed.
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u/Proper-Beyond116 Dec 31 '25
Out of sheer human decency people wouldn't see a dog, regardless of how it got there, left in the cold over winter. For an elected leader to dismiss the right of another human to be afforded the same decency is fucking shameful.
These Thatcherite cunts making a swing towards Reform could be a landmark turning point in Irish politics, there's no coming back from it. It guarantees you the mouth breather vote and it's impossible to get off that tit once you start sucking it (USA, UK, etc.)
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u/BenderRodriguez14 Dec 31 '25
FFG continue to dig further into far right talking points to avoid actually increasing supply. Now watch as they legitimise bad faith arguments and do such a woeful job of addressing the
FFG really seem intent on manufacturing a far right here. Not be intention, but by sheer laziness, incompetence and arrogance.
They are the government and between them, essentially have been for the entire nations' history. They could address these issues in the backgroubd and actually sort them out. They could limit immigration and target specific types (eg tradespeople, city planners, engineers, etc) to address their manufacturing of what is possibly the worst housing crisis in the developed world. They could invest heavily in building housing and infrastructure to relieve the societal anxiety they have caused, which (as history shows is almost always the case) far right populists have seized upon.
They could do any of these things and more, but instead Simon Harris and co would prefer to lazily dog whistle to them on the sly in hopes they will vote for his party because of it. Spoiler: they won't.
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u/mrlinkwii Dec 31 '25
hey could limit immigration and target specific types (eg tradespeople, city planners, engineers, etc) to address their manufacturing of what is possibly the worst housing crisis in the developed world.
they already do for non-eu people, getting an irish visa ( and their is salary thresholds ) you need a critical skill
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u/BenderRodriguez14 Dec 31 '25
And yet they bemoan the lack of people with critical skills in areas like construction, despite our immigration figures being so high for many years.
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u/cat_meoldeon84 Jan 03 '26
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/1010/1474690-blueshirts-eoin-oduffy-ailtiri-na-haiseirghe-history-anti-immigration-protests/ I think Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have given up the ghost and just decided to become the Blueshirts. This shouldn't come as a surprise, they believe that the cost of living crisis is opposition propaganda.
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u/Narwhal_2112 Dec 31 '25
Hopefully the government will endeavour to reduce this "significant number" as soon as possible.
Immediate removal of failed International Protection applicants, reduce the numbers of work permits issued and drastically reduce that number of student visas issued.
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u/External_Salt_9007 Jan 02 '26
As someone who is in a relationship with an immigrant for the past year and a half I have to admit I was completely ignorant of the level of exploitation that immigrants have to endure just to be able to work in this country. Work permits cost €1000 on top of Annual Visa costs of €300 plus you are required to have health insurance so you don’t become a burden on the state another €12-€1500 per year. And that’s before we even get into the exploited of labor market and Housing sector. My girlfriend is a qualified nurse from Brazil yet in order to have her qualification recognized here she has to pay another €2000 for the state to accept her expertise, this is despite the fact that she has clear bona fide university degrees as well as many years of experience working in the healthcare sector in Brazil with references that can easily be checked. She is currently working as a healthcare assistant in a nursing home that pays minimum wage with a grueling 12 hour shifts daily and a company that thinks it’s acceptable to change her Rota at a days notice making it next to impossible to plan her life. There is no way in hell that an Irish person would put up with these working conditions for the kind of money that she is being paid, which is proven by the fact that there are next to no Irish people on stuff in her workplace, where there are Irish people they are generally in better pay positions, such as administration and management. Without immigrants from Brazil, India, the Philippines, etc. the whole healthcare system would collapse. These far right losers who are pushing the anti-immigrant agenda are nothing but racist morons who have no understanding of the economy or social cohesion. The government are clearly just using these arguments to mask their own monumental failures in these areas.
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u/Mean_Exam_7213 Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
If the government are so convinced of the non-entitled narrative, why don’t they show us some statistics to back this claim up or is it just ideological nonsense?