Full coverage: Immigration

The former Labour leader speaks about the need for a cross-party political forum to decide Ireland's approach to immigration, why now is not the time for a border poll, and how relieving the housing crisis can drive national pride.

Today, an EU-UK summit will seek to ‘reset’ Britain’s relationship with the bloc that has been in flux since the Brexit referendum almost a decade ago. Pervasive gloom hangs over our neighbouring island. It has its problems, but the pessimism is overdone.

While the Trump administration's chaotic tariffs have attracted cross-party criticism, the "us and them" debate on US immigration shows no sign of abating despite widespread violations of American ideals.

By introducing two-tier citizenship, the restoration of government powers to strip dual nationals of their Irish passport falls into the trap that led so many French voters towards the National Rally.

Peter Sutherland spoke what he believed was the unvarnished truth to power: People seek a better life. In a week when asylum seekers were removed from the capital and when Britain and Ireland sparred over refugees, Sutherland’s views are worth revisiting.

What Ireland needs over the next three decades is the exact opposite of what it has had for the last one: a system that can deliver homes at huge scale, and that can adapt as conditions change.

The political nervousness around migration for decades has contributed to the increasingly worrying spectre of polarisation and disturbance. 2023 has shown just how divisive the provision of shelter and care to those at risk is in our society.

We are not going to be able to prevent talented people from leaving Ireland - nor should we. But could Ireland create the innovation ecosystem it needs by enabling people to come here as quickly and easily as possible? It is time to reform our immigration system.