Originally Posted by
dom
I'm fucked up of people being too politically correct!
The fact of the matter is, the majority of foreign workers who came here at the start of the boom were genuine and hard working people who ended up in Ireland through random circumstances, worked hard and in general were well paid whrn things took off.
The fuckers who followed came on the gravy train having heard of the fortunes to be gleaned from the Irish through good wages, relatively relaxed productivity expectations and, let's face it, our naivety.
I've had this conversation with numerous people - both foreign and Irish - and they pretty much all know of foreign workers who came in on that second, third and fourth wave of migrants and their intention from day one was to screw us over.
The only argument ever thrown back at me is the fact that we as a nation relied upon emigrating to USA, UK and Australia in the past and this was our turn to be providers.
Bullshit.
We are not and never will be a financial force in terms of the World Markets, and therefore we were being overstretched with the amount of people flooding in.
Not to mention that I remember the 80's well.
I had family who moved to England.
But when they came back after numerous years, they didn't return with fortunes amassed.
They didn't come home to businesses and hotels and property which they had purchased with their savings!
In fact, they came home to be home - in alot of cases they returned because there was work available, even though the jobs they were taking up at home paid alot less than the jobs they were leaving!
They also didn't flee back to Ireland with months of rent and utility bills owing!
Yes, some of the Irish did try to rip of the people and countries they moved to, but they were they minority. In general, we worked hard and we set up lives for our families in our new adopted homes. And we spent what we earned. Admittedly too much of it was spent in the pubs there but at least we contributed to the economy of the country's we were in.
The government needs to adopt a policy of protecting it's own.
America has done it and it will hit us hard.
Australia have always done it.
And the UK have learned their lesson from being too open.
Right now, Cowen should be offering every foreign national, even those that are still employed, a package of say a week's salary for every month worked and pay off the foreign workers and dole-getters with a stipulation that they don't regain employment nor are they entitled to any welfare payments for 10 years.
This will stop our Social Welfare being bled dry, protect the Irish who are unemployed or about to be and also create jobs as I'm sure alot of them would take that deal now if it had a 3-month deadline considering they don't know if they'll have a job in 4 months time.
Running the country is easy once you've half a brain!
dom