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THE DÁIL THIS week agreed to take in 200 additional unaccompanied children from the now disbanded refugee camp at Calais.
Before the vote, on last Sunday’s the Week in Politics, a panel discussed the proposal, and debated whether the Irish government had contributed enough to solving the refugee crisis.
Health Minister Simon Harris defended their record, claiming “There are now 40 migrants, or refugees, a fortnight, arriving in Ireland…”
Daithi Kennelly from Co Waterford wanted to know if this was really true, and got in touch with us on Twitter.
(Send your FactCheck requests to factcheck@thejournal.ie, tweet @TJ_FactCheck, or send us a DM).
Claim: Ireland is taking in 40 refugees every two weeks, at the moment
Verdict: Mostly TRUE
What was said:
You can watch a short video of the relevant section from last Sunday’s the Week in Politics, above.
Our focus is on this claim by Simon Harris:
There are now 40 migrants, or refugees, a fortnight, arriving in Ireland under our resettlement and relocation programme that we’re partaking in.
The programme Harris is referring to is the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP), which has two parts:
According to figures provided to FactCheck by the Department of Justice, since the government’s commitment to take part, on 10 September 2015:
It’s worth noting that while the government signed up to the programme on 10 September, obviously the relocation and resettlement itself started after that date.
Unfortunately, the Department of Justice was unable to provide a comprehensive monthly or weekly breakdown of the figures since September 2015, which would have been helpful.
However, we know that on 6 July, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald announced that “273 refugees have already arrived from Lebanon”.
So between 10 September and 6 July (a period of 43 weeks), 273 refugees had arrived from Lebanon, a rate of nearly 13 per fortnight.
And from 7 July to 8 November (a period of 18 weeks), 234 refugees had arrived from Lebanon, a rate of 13 per week, or 26 per fortnight.
So when it comes to the resettlement strand, from Lebanon, we know the numbers are increasing.
The Department of Justice also told FactCheck:
The relocation strand of the Irish Refugee Protection Programme is now interviewing more than 80 asylum seekers at a time in Athens every month for relocation to Ireland from Greece as a single group.
This represents a relocation to Ireland of approximately 40 persons a fortnight from this cohort alone.
40 arrived last Thursday week and the next group arriving this month will include approximately 60 persons. Thereafter it is expected that regular groups of more than 80 a month will arrive under the relocation strand alone.
So we have the numbers to show that in the last three or four months, the number of individuals arriving from Lebanon under the resettlement strand has doubled from 13 to 26 per fortnight, and is therefore increasing.
And we have a written, on-the-record affirmation from the Department of Justice that, under the asylum-seeker relocation strand from Greece, the recent estimated number of arrivals per fortnight has been between 30 and 40.
This yields a combined total of at least 40 refugees and asylum-seekers per fortnight.
Taking into account the unfortunate (and somewhat surprising) absence of a precise weekly or monthly breakdown of the figures, and the somewhat ambiguous meaning of “now” in Minister Harris’s statement, we rate this claim Mostly TRUE.
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here.
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Bout as Irish as I am a Rabbi….
Sean hannitty is the complete opposite of irishness ….him and that other great irishman oreilly are 2 of the most hateful characters that god ever screwed feet on
Ye everyone knows you can only be Irish if you subscribe to a certain political philosophy…
Hey if it makes you feel any better most people here are pretty embarrassed by the whole “Obama is Irish” crap too.
D H, bit of a dumb comment. Can think of plenty more hateful characters than a couple or TV presenters. Tuigeann?
Irish and called one of her kids Tatcher!?!?!,
Megyn Kelly . hubba hubba hubba .That’s right, 3 hubba’s.
@Mr KnowitAll:
If Trump said that you’d all be bawling your eyes out.
Guess we know how she got the job.
@A hater: What an ignorant statement! Does your innuendo also apply to Hannity or are you one of those true male chauvinists pigs who thinks women can only progress in the workplace by giving sexual favours?
I’m sure he’s referring to her outstanding C.V.
You’re probably right given what’s happened to Roger Ailes at Fox. All these bimbos banged and blew their way to pundit fame.
As a country, we should be able to sue bigoted clowns like Hannity for defamation. Either that or invite him here, so that we can take turns kicking him in the nuts!
Wow so charming and tolerant. At least you practice what you preach….
You’re the only bigot here. Please learn what a word means before throwing it around lest you be subject to libel or slander.
@A hater: Why don’t you Google Hannity and add the name Cliven Bundy and see what comes up. Hannity epitomises bigotry!
We’re Irish, it’s complicated?
Typical pathetic a$$ response from an American with Irish roots from several generations ago.
These people are NOT Irish, they are 100% american
Ok I know your position now. I think it’s a dumb one that you couldn’t defend but at least you stated it clearly. Now, let’s chew the fat. If I move to America, am I American? Or would that only apply to my children?
A lot of the readers on this would be right at home at Fox News to be fair
@Showbiz Babyyy: you’d be more of a Pravda type,i suppose ?
You tell em lad you know best sure why even pay taxes just sign on Yeah you tell em bossssssss
‘The pair later made up following a meeting at Trump Tower in New York.’
Cough…cough!
If that great twitter ignoramous Graham Linehan says you aren’t Irish then you most likely are. Have to laugh at the outrage some here have over Yanks identifying with their heritage. Get over yourselves for a second.
You don’t see me going on my Anglo-Saxon heritage do yah
^^ Who the f**k is that guy?
I agree with you Eamonn. It’s always the ones without a lick of Irish too…methinks they feel their token Irish identity slipping. Gonna have to rely on something else in the meetings, a chairde
He’s a blowhard, quick to admonish others that don’t gel with his own myopic, sheltered political biases. I’d destroy him if he held a position longer than it took to delete a tweet.
About as irish as St Patrick
We’ll take kelly. The Americans can have our dumb ass taoiseach Kenny.
They are about as much Irish as I am Jamaican
fekin irish – always trouble!!!
I wonder… if you are born in Ireland, that doesn’t make you necessarily Irish, neither does it if you lived your whole life in Ireland, nor if you Irish parents or ancestors. I am curious what makes one Irish or any nationality.
Ask @James Odin
I’m pretty sure his one and only requirement is being white.
Bryan have you been triggered?
@Liviu Flore: It’s a very good question. Horses get away without all this stuff, unless they have an Irish passport. Even then they could be of Arab stock born in Riyadh but owned by someone here.
Hit s sore spot?
I would be quite happy for someone to say they are Irish, if they were born here, have lived here or one of their parents are Irish. At least something where they have been exposed to our culture and may have adopted some of the mannerisms, accent, sayings or outlook in life.
However, having a temper or arguing in public is not particularly or peculiarly Irish and is certainly not a genetic trait passed on for seven generations.
@James Odin
*yawn* you Reddit trolls have zero imagination. 0/10. Try harder.
About as Irish as Mahatma Ghandi was! Trump does not like interviews with difficult questions..
Hillary flocks to them, as we know. I’m sure you could link me an example of Hillary facing tough questions on a news network. I’ll wait.
@A hater:
Pointing out a deficiency in one of the candidates does not mean the poster supports the other.
Some right wing nonsense spouting D4 variant of Irish, sure.
The same D4 that had the highest support for gay marriage in all of Ireland? All right wing nutters for sure!
Ireland doesn’t have a right wing and everytime someone tries to establish one the so called “anti”-fascists beat them up and obstruct people’s rights of assembly.
Boo hoo! Poor James Odin is being oppressed everyone. Be super duper nice to him, you know how sensitive and thin-skinned the fascists are.
@Donal O’Leary: you are making yourself out to be a proper knacker
@Bryan Kelly: A certain irony in calling someone a fascist just because they disagree with you
Such binary thinking is sort of fascist
It’s not fascism. There are some admirable elements of fascism. What you’re describing is bigotry and has only been found left of the divide in the past 70 years.
100% correct James. Ireland has central/left and full on left. Also, antifa have proven to be incapable of rational debate on conducting themselves nonviolentyly. The only political violence in south of the border has been committed by leftists. Destruction of property during gay marriage ref and expected to be a lot more come a referendum regarding the 8th ammendment.
@A hater – can”t think of too many, TBH. Fascism is the 1st cousin of communism. Both are totalitarian, leftwing, statist ideologies, very dangerous for free trade and religious + individual liberty.
@Bryan – honestly I could write the script for you over emoting lefties no matter what the topic. ‘Racist’, ‘bigot’, ‘fascist’. That about covers it. Clowns with tourettes.
And conservatives lose their minds if you use a singular “they” and send violent death threats to children who don’t stand up for a song.
Yup…it’s the liberals who are overly sensitive.
Sup the whole country except one constituency voted for equal marriage. On other issues D4 is patronising to people who aren’t globalists and uber liberals
Her youngest is named Thatcher, enough said.
wally will be delighted they made up.. a big p*ss up at AAA headquarters to celebrate.
Racists! They are no more Irish than that idiot Bill O’Reilly
@JFN – to call someone a racist without any evidence is a disgusting slur.
Cheers for sticking up for us Graham! Couldn’t do it without you, you channel hopping fairy
Americans…
Willing to blow anyone out of the water. Come on, try me. Defend your political opinions or I’ll reveal them as.emotional, reactionary nonsense.
@A hater:
You follow David Duke on Twitter. Enough said about your allegiances and “political opinions”
@A Hater
I’ve a question for you.
Why do you sound like a cartoon superhero? Why do you and your ilk (David Duke fan says it all) always sound like that.
The pseudo-intellectualism coupled with the absurdly inflated rhetoric and feelings of self-importance speaks of massive insecurity.
Maybe try and improve yourself rather than just spouting whatever nonsense you get from the former KKK Grand Dragon.
Hannity has gone full Trump. At least Kelly tries to be impartial.
Horseshite
Seems at this point you can only be Irish if you’re living, working and paying taxes elsewhere.
Out makes me sick to my stomach to share my heritage with these two disgusting pigs.
*It
@Philip – in the disgusting stakes, you’re way ahead of them.
@Squarepeg01: oooooooh, burn…..
Tim Kaine used the same line to explain his interruptions in VP Debate
have your say