Irish immigration debate stifled

The business weekly asks why there isn't more debate on immigration, considering the impact it is having on life in the country. "Forty years on, immigration is now threatening to become a concern in Ireland. In just one decade, this country has experienced its greatest increase in population in recent history. Opinion polls in Britain consistently show that the real concerns are not xenophobic or based on racism, but are about the strain on the services and social network that mass immigration creates. ... Remarkably, given the numbers who have come and given the changes those numbers have brought about, there has been little debate on the subject in the Dáil [Irish Parliament]. Is there any difference of opinion in any of our political parties in relation to the question? If there isn't, why isn't there? The answer of course is that public representatives are terrified of being branded racists."

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