[Opinion]Migrant workers are not a comodity, Councillor Galvin
The “I am not a racist but…” club has a new member. Limerick County Councillor Liam Galvin.
In an article on the Limerick Leader website, he made somewhat eroneous statements about migrant workers when he called on those that had lost their jobs to be sent back to their own country.
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,”
[..]
“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 know I am blue in the face for saying this, but I will say it again for the benefit of the thick and ignorant out there. All workers, be they Irish, Polish, or Outer Mongolian, who have worked here for more than two years are entitled to claim PRSI. PRSI payments are in effect, their own money. Receiving PRSI is simply them claiming money they paid into the PRSI fund while they were working.
Many of those who came here have set up roots here. They have brought their families here, they have their children in our schools, making friends, etc.
Just like the Irish did in the 1950s and 1960s. We Irish stayed nice and quiet when the UK was going through the tough economic times in the 80s. There were no calls from the likes of Galvin for the Irish to get out of England during the 80s.
Don’t even get me started on the thousands of illegal Irish in the United States.
Furthermore, many of those from Eastern Europe who are here are perfectly entitled to be here as they are EU citizens.
And now for the eroneous crap.
“The equivalent of a week’s social welfare would more than pay for the air fares,”
The equivelent of a weeks social welfare won’t make up for the disruption to these people’s children’s education, the cost of moving furniture and effects accross Europe, finding new accomodation for their families in their destination country, enrollment of their children in new schools, and the like.
“This country is bankrupt and somebody has to shout stop, because we can’t afford to go on the way we are going. I see the day when people will go along to the local post office to find the doors locked, because the money just won’t be there.”
To blame the Eastern Europeans for the demise of the post office is complete and utter lies. The sale of postcards for example has been decimated by the advent of SMS text messaging. Why would someone spend 50 c on posting a letter when they can send an e-mail or make a phonecall for a fraction of that cost. The post office has been in decline long before the economy imploded. If he and his colleagues in Limerick County Council were not so dead set against a boundary extension for the City, which would have made way for propper planning in the urban area of Limerick, then this region would have been in a far better position to combat the economic downturn.
Cllr Galvin also said that he believes that a considerable amount of fraud is also being committed through the wrongful claiming of entitlements on the part of foreign nationals.
He has been told, he said, that taxi drivers are picking up foreigners at the airport and driving them straight to the welfare office and straight back to the airport again.
The natives aren’t strangers to Social Welfare fraud either.
As for the claim that Taxi drivers are doing round trips from the Airport to the social welfare office, where is the evidence? How many of these taxi drivers have contacted the Gardai, or Social Welfare fraud office? This claim is nothing but the equivelent to the old “A guy down the pub told me…” without evidence.
Migrant workers who came here when times were good to meet the demand for labour are not a comodity you can throw away when you have no more need for them. They are human beings who deserve better than that.
Full story can be found here.
Don’t know why, but Cllr Galvin’s attitude to migrant workers made me think of this.