Despite Iran's openly authoritarian and oppressive regime, there are only about 100 Iranians in the IPAS system. Georgia, a democratic and EU candidate country with 1/25th of Iran's population, has 3,000 individuals in IPAS.

We won't need migrant workers in the future. Productivity increases from AI should easily offset demographic problems in the west - If implemented correctly.

Off topic a bit. This is a recent video from the Syrian Orthodox Church of Galway - based in Clarinbridge. I'm confused because the huge congregation are almost exclusively Indian - I was expecting Christian Syrian refugees. I don't have a particularly bad opinion of Indians apart from them taking up fuckloads of houses... My main is issue is.. how are you meant to be a good bigot in Galway if you can't tell the difference between an Orthodox Indian and a conservative Pakistani? This video might piss a few people off, but i found it a little fascinating https://youtu.be/NMEYwsoxokY

In my opinion, one of the biggest threats to Ireland's future sovereignty is the extensive reach of Microsoft (and by extension, OpenAI) into governmental systems and geospatial data. There is a concern that a government as ill-equipped as ours might inadvertently hand over the reins because it doesn't know how to handle AI. Ironically, the strongest defense against this scenario might be the complex, patchwork solutions built in the 80s and 90s by boomer grifters. These systems, which hold together much of the infrastructure for the Health Service Executive and similar entities, are maintained by contractors earning €300,000 a year, sitting on their ass just in case things go wrong. TLDR IT Gombeenery and technical Ineptitude might stave off and at least delay - co -option of the state by Skynet

When you hear the government talking about promoting AI and innovation in Ireland, remember the reported issues in January with the electoral register—a glorified Excel sheet. They push for the digitization of indigenous business through a multitude of quangos and Semi states - while struggling to digitize even the simplest systems within the Department of Social Protection.

Not a great week for camping in Wicklow.

Bloody Foreigners coming in using our hashtags. The American Diaspora is a huge well of resources and support. Just wait till the donations start rolling in. https://news.sky.com/story/how-international-social-media-users-are-stoking-irelands-migration-debate-13127034

Hilarious

Something that needs to be articulated more is that the Irish migration was not a global dispersal but a targeted relocation of a few million to four Anglo countries with a combined population of hundreds of millions.

Use the Stream into River versus an Ocean into a Stream analogy

I'm speechless reading this.

Here's what is going to happen. If the government moves into buying property from developers and building contractors directly, you end up cutting the supply of housing to normal people. This cut in the supply of housing will lead to an increase in the price of housing. The increase in the price of housing will lead to an increase in deposit requirements for mortgages. All of which is creaking under the inflation that has hit the country. So more and more people are forced out of the market.

Moreso, because of the increase of the cost of materials in recent years, if the government are interesting in buying properties that "require upgrading/refurbishment/renovation" then you might get building developers trying to dump the property in order to get out of this uncertainty. The incentive for them to leave the market is higher.

They are doing anything and everything to wreck the housing market.

You can read the article here.

The Full Etender from the Department of Children regarding buying properties for IPAS applicants

All the people above are on at least 100 - 130k a year in salary

The top nine executives in the IPAS section of the Department of Children collectively receive an annual remuneration totaling around 1.2 million.