Big majority believes Ireland has taken in too many refugees

A new poll shows that a significant majority of people believe that Ireland has taken in too many refugees in the past year.

The poll, by Ireland Thinks for the Sunday Independent, shows that 56% of respondents believe that “Ireland has taken in too many refugees in the past year”, while 30% disagreed and 14% were unsure.

Excluding the considerable number of those unsure, some 65% of those who expressed an opinion believe that too many refugees have been taken into the country.

Voters supporting Independent candidates, Aontú or Sinn Féin, were most likely to have said Yes to this question, the poll showed.

Despite months of negative media coverage, most of those polled believe that those opposed to the location of refugee centres across Ireland were not ‘far-right’ but “predominantly concerned local residents”.

48% held that the protests were mostly made up of locals, while 44% believed they were, in fact, “far-right agitators”, with 8% not sure.

In what can be seen as a related question, the largest number of respondents in the poll – 42% – believed that the media reporting of the refugee situation in Ireland is “in favour of refugees and against those with concerns.”

Only 38% believed the media were giving a “balanced, fair refection of the issues involved,” while another 20% believe the media is biased against refugees.

Minister Roderic O’Gorman has urged the Cabinet to locate halls where migrants and asylum seekers can be housed as the number of those accommodation in international protection continues to spiral.