Can We Cope With This Level of Immigration?

The David McWilliams Podcast

This week on the podcast, we take on the two biggest issues shaping our future: immigration and housing. We begin with the looming threat of U.S. tariffs, which could hit by August 1st. A 30% levy would be catastrophic for Ireland, the most open economy in the world, with nearly €600 billion in imports and exports annually. While China retaliates in unison, Europe squabbles over wine, cars, and Big Tech. Meanwhile, Ireland, so dependent on U.S. multinationals, stands massively exposed. We then dive into the far knottier issue: immigration. Between April 2022 and 2023, 141,000 immigrants arrived in Ireland. Only 30,000 houses were built in the same period. You don’t need a PhD to see the problem, demand has tripled, while supply has collapsed. House prices are up 7% in the last three months alone, now approaching half a million euros. Construction is down, despite a 47% increase in government spending since COVID. We break the numbers down: of the 141,000, roughly 90,000 arrived via active government policy; visas, asylum, humanitarian aid. With only two people per home on average, we’d need to build 80,000 houses per year to keep up. We’re building less than half that.

We’re not arguing against immigration, we need it. But policy without planning leads to crisis. If we don’t start managing immigration with data and foresight, we’ll drift into chaos.

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