{"id":165336,"date":"2025-11-29T03:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165336\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T03:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:14:11","slug":"the-irish-independents-view-tough-choices-on-irelands-population-growth-had-to-be-addressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165336\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irish Independent\u2019s View: Tough choices on Ireland\u2019s population growth had to be addressed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan. Photo: PA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/75b11a61-107c-4807-b651-004806ab9127.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan. Photo: PA<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The long-anticipated tightening of our immigration regime has been introduced. In the interests of \u201csocial cohesion\u201d, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said that, among other key changes, asylum-seekers would be making a contribution to state accommodation costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The logic is that an economy with finite resources can only support a finite population. A system that is \u201cgrounded in common sense and is rules-based\u201d was essential. Allowing working international protection applicants to receive free accommodation \u201csimply defies common sense\u201d and \u201cdefies fairness\u201d, Mr Harris said. If it doesn\u2019t end, it allows a \u201cvacuum to develop\u201d, which could be filled with far-right populists, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan. Photo: PA The long-anticipated tightening of our immigration regime has been introduced. In the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2244,61,1629,60,18573,1843,43,48241,70,1419],"class_list":["post-165336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-eu","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-people-before-profit","tag-simon-harris","tag-social-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}