Big Mental Disease

The new rules on work permits were implemented today, June 1st.

This requires that a vacancy must be advertised for two months and no local or European Union applicant found before a work permit application from a non-EU candidate can be considered. The condition will apply equally to new applicants and to work permit holders already resident here who lose their jobs. Other changes include the removal of certain categories of work in the healthcare, financial services and marketing sector from eligibility for work permits, modifications to the green card system and a major increase in work permit fees.

The changed rules will have a devastating impact on those migrant workers who are made redundant, many of whom have lived here for many years, paid taxes and PRSI. They face deportation if they fail to secure employment within three months. Previously if they lost their job, they could have their work permit transferred to a new employment in the same sector. By having to wait until a position has been advertised for two months, the prospect of them obtaining employment before they lose their entitlement to be here will be minimal. They will become undocumented, with devastating consequences for them and their families.

Irish Times

This letter in today’s Irish Independent sums it up:

I AM writing to register my deep disgust at the latest work permit legislation due to come into effect next month.

In better times this country welcomed immigrants to work alongside the Irish people.

The State took their PAYE and their PRSI without objection, it took their stamp duty when they bought houses, it took the VAT they paid when they bought goods and services.

Given Ireland’s past history of emigration, and the experience of Irish citizens working abroad, and this country’s recent appeal to the US administration on behalf of illegal Irish immigrants in America, the decision to effectively force legal migrant workers out of Ireland is shameful.

I am a proud Irishman who is married to a foreign national. and I regularly have contact with non-EU nationals, all of whom live and work legally in the State.

They have experienced long periods away from their families, they have been treated as second class citizens by the Government; and when they eventually succeeded in negotiating the various stumbling blocks the State placed in their way when they tried to bring their families into Ireland to live with them, the State now threatens to remove their way of life.

Rather than impose the two-month job advertisement restrictions on those migrant workers who have legal permission to work in this country but who may now lose their jobs, would it not be more correct to accept that these people have permission to work in Ireland based on the permit the Department of Justice granted them initially and treat them the same as EU nationals ?

This legislation is indicative of the lack of common sense thinking inherent in the Government and belies the phrase “Ireland of the Welcomes” which the Tourist Board trots out when convenient, and which increasingly makes me sick to my stomach.

Wherever I go in the world, my Irish passport and citizenship opens up doors and breaks down barriers.

The Government is determined to undermine that and cheapen the reputation that this country has for being welcoming and tolerant to all comers.

Steve Purcell

Athboy, Co Meath

So you can now add migrants to the list of people this government has shafted. This list already contains teenage girls, the elderly and the sick, children, the disabled and many other unfortunate people. Some of these woefully unfair policies have been reversed; other groups haven’t been so lucky. To make the government think again, you usually have to create an almighty fuss. If you’re loud enough, and the powers that be care what you say, you can force them to do a climbdown. Not all groups are as successful in being heard, however; the most vulnerable are hardly ever even acknowledged not to mind respected.

The two-month job advertisement restrictions are beyond belief. Many people are losing their jobs, through no fault of their own. Some people not only lose their jobs, but run a real risk of being kicked out if they can’t find another. The chances of finding another job if you are non-EEA  are now practically zero, as no employer will be bothered or even able to advertise a position for TWO FULL MONTHS.  It’s a deliberate, cynical attempt to ensure that migrants are not able to work, in the hope that they’ll go away. Once again, blameless and vulnerable people pay the price for other’s fuck-ups. The people that created and sustained the good times with their hard work are not wanted once those good times come to an end. I can imagine the outcry in the Irish press tomorrow morning if the Irish in America or Australia were treated the same way. The hypocrisy is ridiculous. These people payed taxes and contributed to the economy the same way everybody else did. When things aren’t going smoothly, they’re the first to suffer. The general public don’t give a shite about most of these people anyway. I’ve heard plenty of people saying how the jobs should only be given to Irish from now on. This selfish and downright fucking weasel-like attitude is evident all over the country.

MRCI director Siobhán O’Donoghue said she had asked the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to postpone the introduction so that a review of its implications could take place.

“The introduction will be an impossible barrier for any migrant workers.”

Ms O’Donoghue said she told the Minister that the message was that the migrant workers were “not wanted”. She later added that there was a fear in society that immigrants were taking Irish people’s jobs and “there are some politicians who will exploit that fear”.

Irish Times

Yes, there are indeed politicians exploiting the fear. Take a look at this slimeball:

ABBEYFEALE councillor Liam Galvin has called for unemployed Eastern Europeans claiming unemployment benefit to be sent home, stating that a week’s social welfare money could cover their airfares.

Limerick Leader

How about your airfare? Why don’t you get out of the country?

Cllr Galvin said that 20 houses in an Abbeyfeale estate of 80 houses which he canvassed had Eastern Europeans as residents.

You see sir, when people immigrate, they need to live somewhere. Usually people live in houses if they can afford it. I don’t know where you were expecting them to live, perhaps inside fucking discarded  microwaves? When little piss-in-a-bucket towns like yours benefit from foreign labour, you can surely expect that the people who provide the labour will then need somewhere to live. Maybe in the same town?

“I am by no means racist, and I would like to help everyone, but I say that the time has come to take people aside and tell them that they had been very welcome here when the good times meant that work was plentiful,” said Cllr Galvin. “But the time has come to say straight out that we as a country cannot afford all these benefits and that these people would be more than welcome back in five, 10 or 15 years from now, whenever things have picked up again.”

I don’t think you’re racist, just a fucking idiot. Stick your votes up your bottom.

Cllr Galvin said that the Government should examine the options and come up with a scheme to encourage such people to leave.

I wish there was a way to convince some of these halfwit politicians to leave the country. Preferably in a large catapult.

This picture was taken at the protest by MRCI and SIPTU against the proposed changes. More pictures here.

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