Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ The 26-county government are, rightly so, going the extra mile to help Ukrainian refugees who are coming to Ireland escaping the conflict in their homeland. 

An Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, has stated “we will have to go above the norms” to help these people and he is quite correct, for once. The same principle should apply to all peoples fleeing wars and death in the world and all peoples suffering, including the barely mentioned Yemeni people who are also being slaughtered at the hands of Joe Biden's mates, the Saudis. 

These people too should be given consideration by all countries who consider themselves civilised who should adopt a similar approach. With every country doing their bit refugees of all lands could be given safe havens. However, in taking this position problems over and above the expected difficulties faced by a country, any country, welcoming large numbers of refugees could arise if the government(s) do not get it right. Much evidence would suggest the 26-county administration far from getting it right could well be storing up trouble which no person, least of all the refugees, would want. 

The very people who we are trying to help could end up on the receiving end of a reaction if their provisions are not taken care of, along with the wellbeing of the indigenous population. People, and Irish people are no exception, can be very fickle and if this programme is not done properly, calculated, fully costed and staffed the sympathy we are now witnessing could at some point turn to resentment. Remember Angela Merkel in Germany when she had an open-door policy towards refugees, a great stance to take but ill thought out, and much of the initial sympathies turned first to resentment then, in a few cases, outright hostility towards these same people once welcomed with open arms. 

Between 2015 and 2016 approximately one million Syrian refugees took advantage of Germany's open door policy giving rise to the neo-Nazi “Alternative For Deutschland” party (AFD), who seized the opportunity and windows of discontent among elements of the population and exploited them. This forced the German Government of Angel Merkel to change their policy reluctantly, but the far-right were, which should have been anticipated, using it as a stepping stone to pedal their Nazi arguments which, alas, some people listened to.

The age-old argument of one million unemployed, one million refugees equalling send back the refugees and we all have jobs could once again raise its fictitious head. This argument is, of course, utter bollocks but it is simple and it is often simple arguments people want to hear, ill- founded as they are. The socialist argument, the correct one, over unemployment being caused in general by the private ownership of the means of production and the profit motive so enshrined by employers alas is rarely listened to. Sending refugees, and immigrants in general, back to “where they came from” will not necessarily create full employment because profit is the motivator for an employer to take staff on, no profit, no jobs. If every immigrant and/or refugee were sent back tomorrow, would it equal full employment? No, it would not because once the employer installed a new machine which can do twenty people’s jobs thus saving on wages, then twenty people have to go, and there would be no refugees or immigrants to blame! Again, the private ownership of these machines tends to be the cause of workers losing their jobs, not where these workers come from and not the machinery per se! People tend to find such arguments too confusing and long-winded and the easy scapegoat rubbish, blaming immigration tends to gain traction alas.

We have seen on the news time and time again the INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) telling us how the health service is stretched, and that is an understatement, with the upsurge in Covid-19 cases and the union even claiming hospitals being “very dangerous places to be” due to these cases. People are being told their normal appointments will be cancelled and anybody waiting for an operation may well have to wait, even life-saving surgery the wait could be indefinite. Beds are always in short supply but with the present wave of Covid these shortages are being magnified tenfold, so imagine the reaction if another epidemic, or the present one is increased in severity among the increasing numbers of refugees! All kinds of fairy tales could be dreamt up, including the blame game, by people whose political interests are served by such rubbish. What could the reaction be among the presently sympathetic public? What happens when somebody takes their child to hospital and finds out, quite coincidentally, that the doctor is busy seeing another patient? That other patient turns out to be a refugee, what could the negative reaction be? Nine out of ten times the waiting Irish patient would just wait, accept the fact the Ukrainian got there earlier than they did, and wait their turn. Then we get the individual, usually already holding prejudices, who start blaming refugees for the crisis in the health service. The fact the service has been broken for years would, under such circumstances, be forgotten and everything could be blamed on refugees. 

Enter the far-right to exploit and spread such rubbish as blaming refugees for the crisis in our health service, trying to be seen supporting local people. The nine out of ten patients waiting their turn quietly could then become six out of ten, then four out of ten and so on. For reasons like this hypothetical situation the government, while welcoming refugees and supplying them with medical cards at the same time must start recruiting staff into the health service. Wards currently chained up must be reopened, because as the Taoiseach said “these are not normal times, we must go over the norm” and this means not only taking our share of refugees but making adequate provisions for their wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the indigenous people. Failure to do so could well result in anger and resentment which the refugees neither need nor deserve.

Moving away from health and let us take a look at the housing crisis. We already have large unprecedented numbers of homeless people and nowhere to house them, so we are told. The 26-county government are talking about erecting 35,000 houses over the next five years to help accommodate refugees. Why could such measures not have been taken earlier to help alleviate the already high numbers of homeless people? Why do we have to wait for a situation on the other side of Europe to erupt before our government acts? Building houses is fair enough but they will not spring up over-night. Where are we to put our guests in the meantime? As I look around me, I see idle properties everywhere, on Dorset Street on Dublin’s north side there are many empty buildings which with the minimum of effort could be used as accommodation. 

If somebody owns property which is laid vacant then take the said building(s) off their owner(s) and utilise it/them to house refugees. Instead, our beloved government are talking about using student accommodation when hotel rooms are full. Students, love them or loath them, are the next generation of Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Bankers etc and they need somewhere to live while they are studying. Somebody on the “Tonight Show” suggested putting refugees in tents! What a welcome, we can’t give you a roof over your head but here is a tent and sleeping bag! Requisitioning idle buildings is a must, along with ghost estates where houses are waiting for buyers, take them into state ownership as well. The government are hoping the hoteliers can help out which, I’m in no doubt, they can but help means just that, help. Just a reminder, the tourist season is coming upon us and hotels will be needed for holiday makers. The hospitality industry was hammered by Covid and now, it appears, they will be expected to turn trade away to house refugees. Again, if this happens expect a reaction, and it is avoidable simply by acquiring these empty buildings, by force if necessary. They are, after all experts at using force to evict people!

Education, it would appear, is one sector which is getting it somewhere near right. Project Failte is doing sterling work in this area. Ukrainian and bilingual teachers are being recruited in preparation for the influx of refugees, great to see and encouraging. We have seen on the news recently the encouraging and happy sight of Ukrainian refugee children settling into their new schools. Education is vital to the development of all children and it was great to see the integration into the school system taking place. A far cry from the seventies when I was at school, or what passed for school, where hatred and bullying was the order of the day from teacher down. Thankfully, if other areas of society have digressed, education has moved forward in a progressive way.

So far, the far-right in Ireland small as they are, have been quiet. That does not mean they always will be as situations arise, which they are bound to. Scapegoating is the fascist methodology to create divisions in society and such a situation, as highlighted in my hypothetical hospital environment, arises in real life they will jump on it in a flash. They will then claim to be the representatives of the Irish people, probably claiming their needs are being “neglected” because of refugees. “It’s all the foreigners fault” as we have heard so many times in the past. These arguments must never be allowed to gain traction and for this reason, among many others, the government must get this right. They must start recruiting staff into our health service, thus cutting the waiting lists. People awaiting operations must have them within a reasonable time frame, telling them they’ll have to wait is not acceptable but is not the fault of refugees. Accommodation must be found, and quick, not only for our guests but also the presently homeless people. Private landlords must be requisitioned into service, giving accommodation to refugees free of charge at the point of need. If they do not like it, take their property off them.

With thought and planning this programme can be a great success for both the refugees and indigenous population alike as a harmonious society can be built out of tragedy in Eastern Europe.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

Going The Extra Mile ✑ But Get It Right

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ The 26-county government are, rightly so, going the extra mile to help Ukrainian refugees who are coming to Ireland escaping the conflict in their homeland. 

An Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, has stated “we will have to go above the norms” to help these people and he is quite correct, for once. The same principle should apply to all peoples fleeing wars and death in the world and all peoples suffering, including the barely mentioned Yemeni people who are also being slaughtered at the hands of Joe Biden's mates, the Saudis. 

These people too should be given consideration by all countries who consider themselves civilised who should adopt a similar approach. With every country doing their bit refugees of all lands could be given safe havens. However, in taking this position problems over and above the expected difficulties faced by a country, any country, welcoming large numbers of refugees could arise if the government(s) do not get it right. Much evidence would suggest the 26-county administration far from getting it right could well be storing up trouble which no person, least of all the refugees, would want. 

The very people who we are trying to help could end up on the receiving end of a reaction if their provisions are not taken care of, along with the wellbeing of the indigenous population. People, and Irish people are no exception, can be very fickle and if this programme is not done properly, calculated, fully costed and staffed the sympathy we are now witnessing could at some point turn to resentment. Remember Angela Merkel in Germany when she had an open-door policy towards refugees, a great stance to take but ill thought out, and much of the initial sympathies turned first to resentment then, in a few cases, outright hostility towards these same people once welcomed with open arms. 

Between 2015 and 2016 approximately one million Syrian refugees took advantage of Germany's open door policy giving rise to the neo-Nazi “Alternative For Deutschland” party (AFD), who seized the opportunity and windows of discontent among elements of the population and exploited them. This forced the German Government of Angel Merkel to change their policy reluctantly, but the far-right were, which should have been anticipated, using it as a stepping stone to pedal their Nazi arguments which, alas, some people listened to.

The age-old argument of one million unemployed, one million refugees equalling send back the refugees and we all have jobs could once again raise its fictitious head. This argument is, of course, utter bollocks but it is simple and it is often simple arguments people want to hear, ill- founded as they are. The socialist argument, the correct one, over unemployment being caused in general by the private ownership of the means of production and the profit motive so enshrined by employers alas is rarely listened to. Sending refugees, and immigrants in general, back to “where they came from” will not necessarily create full employment because profit is the motivator for an employer to take staff on, no profit, no jobs. If every immigrant and/or refugee were sent back tomorrow, would it equal full employment? No, it would not because once the employer installed a new machine which can do twenty people’s jobs thus saving on wages, then twenty people have to go, and there would be no refugees or immigrants to blame! Again, the private ownership of these machines tends to be the cause of workers losing their jobs, not where these workers come from and not the machinery per se! People tend to find such arguments too confusing and long-winded and the easy scapegoat rubbish, blaming immigration tends to gain traction alas.

We have seen on the news time and time again the INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) telling us how the health service is stretched, and that is an understatement, with the upsurge in Covid-19 cases and the union even claiming hospitals being “very dangerous places to be” due to these cases. People are being told their normal appointments will be cancelled and anybody waiting for an operation may well have to wait, even life-saving surgery the wait could be indefinite. Beds are always in short supply but with the present wave of Covid these shortages are being magnified tenfold, so imagine the reaction if another epidemic, or the present one is increased in severity among the increasing numbers of refugees! All kinds of fairy tales could be dreamt up, including the blame game, by people whose political interests are served by such rubbish. What could the reaction be among the presently sympathetic public? What happens when somebody takes their child to hospital and finds out, quite coincidentally, that the doctor is busy seeing another patient? That other patient turns out to be a refugee, what could the negative reaction be? Nine out of ten times the waiting Irish patient would just wait, accept the fact the Ukrainian got there earlier than they did, and wait their turn. Then we get the individual, usually already holding prejudices, who start blaming refugees for the crisis in the health service. The fact the service has been broken for years would, under such circumstances, be forgotten and everything could be blamed on refugees. 

Enter the far-right to exploit and spread such rubbish as blaming refugees for the crisis in our health service, trying to be seen supporting local people. The nine out of ten patients waiting their turn quietly could then become six out of ten, then four out of ten and so on. For reasons like this hypothetical situation the government, while welcoming refugees and supplying them with medical cards at the same time must start recruiting staff into the health service. Wards currently chained up must be reopened, because as the Taoiseach said “these are not normal times, we must go over the norm” and this means not only taking our share of refugees but making adequate provisions for their wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the indigenous people. Failure to do so could well result in anger and resentment which the refugees neither need nor deserve.

Moving away from health and let us take a look at the housing crisis. We already have large unprecedented numbers of homeless people and nowhere to house them, so we are told. The 26-county government are talking about erecting 35,000 houses over the next five years to help accommodate refugees. Why could such measures not have been taken earlier to help alleviate the already high numbers of homeless people? Why do we have to wait for a situation on the other side of Europe to erupt before our government acts? Building houses is fair enough but they will not spring up over-night. Where are we to put our guests in the meantime? As I look around me, I see idle properties everywhere, on Dorset Street on Dublin’s north side there are many empty buildings which with the minimum of effort could be used as accommodation. 

If somebody owns property which is laid vacant then take the said building(s) off their owner(s) and utilise it/them to house refugees. Instead, our beloved government are talking about using student accommodation when hotel rooms are full. Students, love them or loath them, are the next generation of Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Bankers etc and they need somewhere to live while they are studying. Somebody on the “Tonight Show” suggested putting refugees in tents! What a welcome, we can’t give you a roof over your head but here is a tent and sleeping bag! Requisitioning idle buildings is a must, along with ghost estates where houses are waiting for buyers, take them into state ownership as well. The government are hoping the hoteliers can help out which, I’m in no doubt, they can but help means just that, help. Just a reminder, the tourist season is coming upon us and hotels will be needed for holiday makers. The hospitality industry was hammered by Covid and now, it appears, they will be expected to turn trade away to house refugees. Again, if this happens expect a reaction, and it is avoidable simply by acquiring these empty buildings, by force if necessary. They are, after all experts at using force to evict people!

Education, it would appear, is one sector which is getting it somewhere near right. Project Failte is doing sterling work in this area. Ukrainian and bilingual teachers are being recruited in preparation for the influx of refugees, great to see and encouraging. We have seen on the news recently the encouraging and happy sight of Ukrainian refugee children settling into their new schools. Education is vital to the development of all children and it was great to see the integration into the school system taking place. A far cry from the seventies when I was at school, or what passed for school, where hatred and bullying was the order of the day from teacher down. Thankfully, if other areas of society have digressed, education has moved forward in a progressive way.

So far, the far-right in Ireland small as they are, have been quiet. That does not mean they always will be as situations arise, which they are bound to. Scapegoating is the fascist methodology to create divisions in society and such a situation, as highlighted in my hypothetical hospital environment, arises in real life they will jump on it in a flash. They will then claim to be the representatives of the Irish people, probably claiming their needs are being “neglected” because of refugees. “It’s all the foreigners fault” as we have heard so many times in the past. These arguments must never be allowed to gain traction and for this reason, among many others, the government must get this right. They must start recruiting staff into our health service, thus cutting the waiting lists. People awaiting operations must have them within a reasonable time frame, telling them they’ll have to wait is not acceptable but is not the fault of refugees. Accommodation must be found, and quick, not only for our guests but also the presently homeless people. Private landlords must be requisitioned into service, giving accommodation to refugees free of charge at the point of need. If they do not like it, take their property off them.

With thought and planning this programme can be a great success for both the refugees and indigenous population alike as a harmonious society can be built out of tragedy in Eastern Europe.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

4 comments:

  1. A ĺot of fair and rational observations that with luck the government itself will be preparing for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope you're right Christy, but I have doubts. The goverment have had ample opportunities to at least begin rectifying our health and housing problems. They will, if
    experience is anything to go by in other countries, wait until civil war breaks out in our A+Es before they acknowledge immediate action must be taken. Take that action now, start recruiting nursing staff, with a package comparible with other countries, I have highlighted my answer, or one of them, to help the accomodation problem, I'm sure other options are available.
    Alas the 26 county administration appear to think applauding President Zelenskyy addressing the Dail will solve these problems waiting to happen. Please, please act now, as Micheal Martin has pointed out more than once, "these are not normal times" so stop acting normally.
    At the moment the price of heating has not yet kicked in. With summer coming we may have breathing space. But wait till winter arrives and people start to freeze because they can't afford to heat their homes! Expect a possible reaction!! Act now against excessive price hikes by the energy companies. As you say, "these are not normal times" so cap the price increases, let the energy suppliers take some of the cost.

    Caoimhin O'Murile

    ReplyDelete
  3. CO'M

    Governments haven't a track record of good organisational preparedness. And it's a pipedream to think energy tycoons will not take advantage to hike prices.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Then legislate, thats what governments are suppossed to do. They are quick to bring in laws preventing homeless people occupying idle property, so legislate against the tycoons, if they dare! It is the class society with its unrestricted property rights which is greatly responsible for the housing crisis in the first place. Now, with desparate refugees coming in legislate to seize property or risk a terrible reaction eventually. As an anti-fascist I know the far right are just waiting, mark my words and, as time goes by they will gather suppprt. Stop the problem developing any further than it is now. Refugees deserve better and not a chain reactioned fuelled by the far right, but ignighted by government inaction. Do it now, if the tycoons do not like it give them something to moan about, take a percentage of their wealth to pay for the health service and housing for all, including our refugees.

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

    ReplyDelete