Free Contraception for women

That's because the State sector is brutal at delivering services so they outsource to the Private Sector.
If we has a 'proper' service it would be heavily unionised, dysfunctional, inefficient, really expensive and Fintan O'Toole would have to clone himself to harvest enough cossetted wealthy socialist rage to fill a new supplement in the Irish Times writing about how the Government were failing the children of Ireland.

The Swedes, along with just about every other country in Northern Europe, have less incompetent Public Services.
 
Are 9 countries just about to join the EU?
If not then I very much doubt you are correct.

Well yes, I could of course be wrong. Im not sure what the reference to joining the EU is about. I'm thinking along lines of immigration from mid-East, Asia, Africa and Americas.
 
Well yes, I could of course be wrong. Im not sure what the reference to joining the EU is about. I'm thinking along lines of immigration from mid-East, Asia, Africa and Americas.
The massive in-flow of immigrants we had in the mid two thousands was due to us being one of only a few countries to open our borders to the Eastern European countries that joined the EU. That isn't going to happen again. We aren't going to get big in-flows from anywhere else.
 
Seriously? If we put up an ad tomorrow offering legal immigrant visas, the response would be overwhelming. We already have large amounts of immigration via the asylum seeker system -temporarily abated due Covid - with all its disadvantages and inconsistencies for us and them. If we were to offer legal regularised immigration opportunities, demand would outstrip supply just like the USA green card lottery system.

Whether we should or not is a separate question, of course.
 
The in-flow we got was of skilled mostly English speaking people and, crucially, they had somewhere to live. That's not an option now.
 
The in-flow we got was of skilled mostly English speaking people and, crucially, they had somewhere to live. That's not an option now.
There's an almost endless reservoir of people in the developing world who very much want to emigrate to Western Europe. Many speak English. They are prepared to live three or four to a room like the Irish did in London and Boston not so long ago.
 
We aren't going to get big in-flows from anywhere else.

I beg to differ. It may not be on the scale as before, but a substantial migration of people outside of EU are on their way here, by design.

Prior to the Covid pandemic the hospitality industry applied for, and got, an additional 1,500 employment permits for kitchen workers, predominantly chefs and cooks at all levels.
Part of the condition of issuing an employment permit is that the employer needs to show that they cannot source staff in the EU.
Little old Ireland has a chef problem. And it cannot source cooks, with one of the highest minimum wage, from the pool of mass youth unemployment in Italy, Greece, Spain and elsewhere within the EU?
There are many reasons for this. One is it easier to source low-wage English speaking kitchen staff in Asia, Africa and South America than it is in Europe, apparently.
That, and the undocumented worker amnesty that is due to begin means that, once documented and legitimised, non EU workers will be inviting their family members here to 'visit'.
All that, and as was mentioned earlier about the childcare problems (another reason to import cheap Asian and African labour) and aging population means we can expect a 2nd wave of migration into this country over the next 5yrs - assuming matters settle post Covid crisis.

Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with it. I'm just giving you my reasoning as to why I think we will see large numbers of migrants in the coming years.
 
There's an almost endless reservoir of people in the developing world who very much want to emigrate to Western Europe. Many speak English. They are prepared to live three or four to a room like the Irish did in London and Boston not so long ago.
Sure, but we aren't going to let them in. That's the reality. We had that massive flow of people in the mid 2000's because of the enlargement of the EU.
 
Sure, but we aren't going to let them in. That's the reality. We had that massive flow of people in the mid 2000's because of the enlargement of the EU.
Agreed. We probably won't admit them. But we could if we wanted to. Which would fix any population decline problem.
 
Which would fix any population decline problem.

If there is a population decline problem there is simply no question that they will be allowed in.
But population growth is expected at around 6% from 2020 to 2025. So population growth is not an issue. But if working women are choosing to delay family planning for career prospects, where will the population growth come from?
 
I'd have no problem with it either and while it will happen to some extent it won't mirror the mid 2000's.
 
Europe and North America aren't replacing their populations, Asia is just about replacing their. It's forecasted that by 2100 4 in every 10 people on the planet will live in Africa.
 
2 things around immigration strike me right now
  • there is no need for a lot of the well educated technically adept highly skilled people to move to Ireland for work any more. They can work from their own home country perfectly well and if needed, fly in every couple of months for a few days
  • I'm seeing a lot of immigrants returning home, if they haven't put down roots. I can name half a dozen who've gone home and it is down to Covid and the realisation that you can't always depend on the daily 2 hour Ryanair to where-ever to get you home if something had gone wrong