Ireland has recorded its highest level of immigration since before the 2008 banking crash, the country’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) has confirmed.
The figures — which are the highest recorded since 2007 — have coincided with a spike in mass emigration, especially among those between 15 and 24 years old.
According to the data released on August 27, Ireland had around 149,200 immigrants arrive in the 12 months to April 2024.
In the year to April 2024, the population of Ireland saw the largest 12-month increase since 2008https://t.co/nQgUEHqYdY#CSOIreland #Ireland #Population #PopulationEstimates #Migration #MigrationEstimates@citizensinfo @davidmurphyRTE @IrelandAMVMTV @irishtv @LatedebateRTE pic.twitter.com/9g9RLaoGPH
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) August 27, 2024
Of this figure, 30,000 were Irish citizens moving back home from abroad. A further 27,000 were listed as coming from other European Union countries, while around 5,000 arrived from the UK.
The remaining 87,000 were listed as arriving from the rest of the world, with the figure including legal and illegal migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees from Ukraine.
By contrast, the majority of those leaving the island nation were Irish, with nearly 35,000 of the country’s citizens registered as having left the country within this period.
Of that number, around 10,000 left for Australia. One of the key destinations for Irish economic migrants — alongside the US and the UK — the Southern Hemisphere country saw Irish immigration spike by 126 per cent compared to the period ending April 2023.
“This is the highest level of emigration to Australia since 2013,” the CSO statement on the figures noted, adding that the number of Irish returning from Australia has declined by nearly one-fifth within this same period.
Police in Ireland have launched a terror probe after a priest was stabbed outside an army barracks late on August 15. https://t.co/n9PV6Ot2VM
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 16, 2024
The development has concerned politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.
In a statement, Sinn Féin (The Left group) MP Mairéad Farrell described the rise in emigrants as “no surprise”.
“We have all seen the rise in young people leaving for Australia, so today’s CSO figures will not come as a surprise to any of us because we see it in our friendship groups, in our family circles and in our neighbourhoods,” she said.
“We keep being told that the economy is doing well but very clearly something is going wrong for young people here that they feel there is no alternative but to go to Australia.
“Rents are so high that many young people have no choice but to continue to live with their parents into their 30s,” she added.
Independent MP Carol Nolan expressed “profound alarm” at the nearly 150,000 influx over 12 months.
As an Independent TD I will continue to raise concerns on behalf of constituents in relation to mass, unsustainable and the reckless immigration levels that are going unchecked pic.twitter.com/iTyyn0RLUv
— Carol Nolan TD (@CNolanOffaly) August 27, 2024
“What we are witnessing is unnerving and totally unsustainable levels of inward migration that will inevitably bring the capacity of the State to provide even minimal services to a screeching halt,” she said.
“This is a multi-generational catastrophe unfolding in plain sight; one that is already crippling the capacity of the State to meet current housing and medical need.
“No State can cope with these numbers during an infrastructure and housing crisis. It is therefore almost inevitable, if completely foreseeable, that we are heading toward the precipice of a multi-systems failure as the annual burden of inward migration numbers shows no signs of abating,” the politician added.
Ireland was willing to take a limitless number of refugees and asylum seekers in 2022 and the country’s government is now struggling to handle arrivals, forcing it to resort to setting up State-run “tent cities” to house international protection claimants.
The situation has provoked anger among the Irish population, with large protests against mass migration — along with vigilante action — now common.
Several sites earmarked or suspected to have been earmarked to house migrants in the country have been attacked over the past 12 months, with attempts by authorities to prevent such vandalism having so far proven futile.
Ireland’s former European People’s Party (EPP) prime minister, Leo Varadkar, is reportedly palling about with ex-US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. https://t.co/45KFJ2RTuy
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 23, 2024
