The bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has dismissed suggestions that Ireland’s welfare and public housing services are being abused by immigrants. Dr Walsh said that while a small number of immigrants was ‘using the system’, the charge that this was widespread was untrue.
He said he believed that if the Irish economy moves into a downturn, immigrants who came here during the boom will return home rather than stay here to claim welfare.
The bishop said that while a small number of immigrants have come “to use our welfare system” it was equally true that “a small number of Irish people abuse the welfare system too”.
But, he argued, “any suggestion that a large proportion of the immigrant population are here to abuse the system is simply not true”.
Dr Walsh praised immigrants for “an enormous contribution to the economy” over the last decade and said the vast majority of them were working.
“There is solid evidence to indicate that the vast majority of our immigrants have made a solid contribution to the economy” he said.
He blamed social housing allocations for creating the impression that immigrants were using Ireland’s relatively generous welfare system. The bishop said he believed that many of those who came would return home if and when they became unemployed.
“Many immigrants who were involved in the construction industry will go back home because of the downturn here and due to improved economic conditions in eastern Europe” he predicted.
“A lot of people who came here in recent years wouldn’t have intended to stay”.
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