Libertas candidate calls for block on immigrants

LIBERTAS CANDIDATE for Ireland East Raymond O’Malley has called for Ireland to close its borders to workers from fellow EU states.

Speaking on Today FM’s Last Word show with Matt Cooper, Mr O’Malley said: “I think a lot of people are very concerned too about the problem of immigration.

“While we’ve massive unemployment in this country, over the last five years we’ve had 500,000 people come in to this country and there has been a funnel effect.

When asked whether it was now Libertas policy to prevent any more workers from the 10 accession states from entering, Mr O’Malley answered: “Well I think as long as we have this rate of unemployment, yes.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0515/1224246568315.html

Immigrants not factored into job loss estimates

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen's prediction last Wednesday that unemployment could hit 400,000 by the end of this year came despite the Government making no provision for Irish and non-Irish nationals who may leave or enter the country as a result of the global downturn, the Sunday Independent has learned.

Given the failure by government officials to factor in any estimates on the expected outflow of workers who lose their jobs during 2009, Mr Cowen's grim forecast could yet turn out to be hopelessly optimistic to the tune of tens of thousands.

For in the case of non-Irish nationals from Eastern Europe, being unemployed in Ireland could still present a more attractive option than a return to one's home country.

The weekly entitlement to jobseeker's benefit stands at over €200 per week here and matches -- and in some cases outstrips -- professional salaries in EU accession countries such as Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/immigrants-not-factored-into-job-loss-estimates-1632513.html

Dole bill trebles for Irelands EU migrants

The number of migrant workers from new EU member states claiming unemployment benefits in Ireland has trebled in 12 months as the building industry has entered serious decline.

Almost a sixth of those on the live register are now foreign nationals from EU or non-EU countries. Dole figures are surging upwards due to the economic slump, with growth likely to fall to near zero this year and unemployment rising to about 6%.

Some 38,500 of the 221,000 people on the live register are from abroad. Figures supplied to The Sunday Times show 15,500 claimants are from the 10 accession state countries that joined the EU in 2004, half of them from Poland. Another 10,000 are from the UK (including Northern Ireland), 10,000 are from other overseas countries (such as Africa, America, and Australia) and 2,000 from the rest of the EU.

The number of foreign dole claimants is up from 23,000 a year ago, but the number of accession-state claimants has almost trebled from 5,860 to 15,540. This is now the register’s biggest overseas category.

The Department of Finance has calculated that each unemployed person costs the state an average of €11,000 a year. On that basis the non-Irish claimants will cost the exchequer about ¤420m in a full year.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article4323312.ece