The Independent Ireland candidate for Galway West, Noel Thomas, has said that the practice of private companies profiteering from immigration needs to come to an end, that IPAS centres should subject to the planning process and that a common sense immigration policy needs to be implemented immediately.
“Immigration is one of the most pressing issues facing Ireland in 2024,” Noel Thomas said. “I support legal immigration because I recognise the important role immigrants play in our economy and our society. I do not support illegal immigration.
“We have seen an enormous increase in applications for International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS ), or refugee status, during the past two years, many of which are without merit. The Government has done nothing except force these people, many of whom are unskilled economic migrants, into communities that are not equipped to accommodate them.”
Speaking about the treatment he received at the time of the incident at Ross Lake House in December of last year, Councillor Thomas said that the issues he raised at the time, and was vilified for, are now being echoed by senior Government figures.
“I have been vilified and my family subjected to dawn raids due to my position and for standing with my community at the Ross Lake Hotel late last year,” he said. “Yet in recent times, senior Government politicians have adopted the same view as I had at the time. But we need action now. We need to impose strict background checks on all visa applicants while reducing bureaucratic hurdles for small and medium enterprises hiring legal immigrants and allow legal immigrants with a tax number to work upon arrival in order to meet the human resource requirements of the Irish economy.
“But in order to have a proper functioning immigration policy we need to categorically deal with uncontrolled immigration by obligating IPAS centres to follow the same planning regulations as every other entity in the country and allow individuals, communities, and businesses to file objections with the relevant planning authority.
“Independent Ireland would support the immediate deportation of IPAS applicants convicted of violent or sexual offences and the automatic refusal of IPAS applicants who have prior serious criminal convictions as well as deport incarcerated foreign nationals immediately after their prison sentence ends. We would also require airlines to provide scans of passports presented pre-flight to identify people who destroy or lose their identity documents and acquire the use of secure airport detention facilities for undocumented arrivals and people awaiting deportation. Communities throughout Galway and the rest of the country have been vilified for wanting to make sure that common sense immigration policies apply to them. And the Government are absolutely responsible for this. Independent Ireland will bring a common sense approach to immigration policy in Ireland that has been lacking up until now,” he added.
