Government claims that asylum seekers are putting further pressure on Ireland’s housing crisis are an ‘absolute red herring’, Shane Coleman has said.

He was speaking after the former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warned that immigration numbers have risen far too quickly in Ireland in recent years – and suggested it has been a real challenge for the country.

During a visit to the University of Notre Dame in the US over the weekend, Deputy Varadkar said that while the majority of Irish people believe immigration had benefitted in Ireland in recent years, people were also “right” to think that numbers have risen too quickly.

“The majority of people think that the numbers have been too big in recent years, and they’re right,” he said.

“A country of five million people seeing its population rise by 2% - which is what’s happening at the moment - is too fast.”

Main image is a file photo of Leo Varadkar arriving at Áras an Uachtaráin to tender his resignation as Taoiseach, 08-04-2024. Image: PA Images / Alamy

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, presenter Shane Coleman labelled the comments disingenuous and factually incorrect.

He said the vast majority of the immigration that has seen Ireland’s population rising in recent year has been legal – but the social unrest the country has seen has largely related to asylum seekers.

“The problems all related to asylum seekers and their people not wanting them - wrongly, in my view - in their local community,” he said.

“Those asylum seekers make up about 10% of the numbers coming here.

“So, it's a complete red herring to talk about the population growing by 2% and Leo Varadkar knows that – it’s an absolute red herring.

“The issues are all around people - and I don't think this reflects well on us - not wanting asylum seekers from certain countries in our areas – it has not nothing to do with the huge numbers arriving here.

“I think his point is disingenuous – I think it's missing the point.”

Asylum seekers

It comes after the President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Simon Harris publicly clashed over the impact of asylum seekers on Ireland’s housing crisis.

In an interview with the Sunday Times last weekend, the Taoiseach said the “very serious volume of people coming to the country is now having a real impact” on levels of homelessness.

Speaking after addressing the UN in New York the next day, however, President Higgins rejected those comments and warned that the Government’s housing interventions have been “limited and damaged by the fact that they’re all responses to the market.”

The following day Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien backed the Taoiseach’s comments – insisting that immigration was a factor contributing to the high numbers of people accessing homeless services in Ireland.

Housing

Shane rejected the idea asylum seekers are exacerbating the housing crisis.

“Asylum seekers coming here have had no impact on the housing market at all – that’s another myth that needs to be that needs to be [challenged],” he said.

“They're not housed in houses; they’re housed in accommodation centres.

“The 13,000 people coming here last year as asylum seekers had no impact on the housing market and I think that the Taoiseach himself Simon Harris was wrong to draw a link between that during the week.

“I just think we need to be really careful about what we're saying and I think we need to be factual about what we're saying and I don't think Leo Varadkar was.

“I don't think he hit either of those markers.”

Ciara Kelly in the Newstalk studio. Image: Rory Walsh/Newstalk

Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said it is “blatantly obviously the truth” that the high numbers of people arriving in the country have been a challenge.

“We've had debates all of last week about whether or not immigration is contributing to our housing problem,” she said.

“Of course it has – but people on one side of this debate will argue one point and on the other side another.

“It's like looking outside the window and saying, is it raining or not?

“Objectively, we have had a 2% rise in population, which totally outperforms our birth rate and it has created issues.

“Now, that is not to say that we don't have to deal with those issues and that is not to say that, you know, that these issues cannot be overcome.”

Ciara noted that the Irish people have been “very welcoming” despite the challenges the country has faced in recent years.