Irish PM Says Ireland Is “Not Overrun” by Immigrants, Links Legal Migration to Economic Success

NEW YORK — Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin rejected claims that Ireland has been “overrun” by immigrants, saying the country’s sharp demographic shift reflects mostly legal migration fueled by its economic growth. Nearly one in four people living in Ireland was born abroad.

In an exclusive interview with News Media, Martin acknowledged that Ireland’s asylum system failed to keep pace with a record influx of applications, conceding that processing had been “too slow” in recent years.

He also discussed proposed changes to citizenship requirements and said he was open to releasing crime data that identifies the nationalities of suspects, as immigration and public safety become increasingly divisive issues.

The debate has emerged as a major political fault line in Europe and the United States, just weeks after President Donald Trump criticized Europe’s immigration policies during an appearance with Martin in Dublin.

“That immigration, what you’re doing to yourselves, you’re just killing yourselves,” Trump said.

“Ireland is not overrun in any shape or form,” Martin told News Media. “But we are conscious that it is an issue that has to be addressed robustly, firmly, fairly as well in terms of those seeking asylum.”

Across Europe, he said, governments are tightening immigration policies in response to mounting public and political pressure linked to migration.

“Obviously, illegal migration is the more potent issue,” Martin said. He acknowledged that Ireland’s asylum process had moved too slowly but said authorities have since accelerated both the review of applications and the appeals procedure.

Martin said the government is drafting a new migration strategy that would raise the residency period required for citizenship from five years to eight. The plan would also add language and economic self-sufficiency conditions.

Migration and crime

In Ireland, immigration has become closely tied to disputes over housing, crime and the country’s rapidly changing population. The debate carries particular weight in a nation that was far more homogeneous just one generation ago.

The issue drew global attention in November 2023, when Riad Bouchaker, an Irish citizen born in Algeria, stabbed three children and a childcare worker outside a Dublin school. The attack sparked riots, as anger over mass immigration escalated into violence in the capital. Protests against government plans to accommodate asylum seekers in communities nationwide continued afterward, with some demonstrations also ending in violent confrontations.

Immigration again moved to the center of public debate this summer after the killing of Jamey Carney, a 43-year-old American mother from New York, who was found dead at her home in County Kerry.

Her boyfriend, a Jordanian national and the suspect in the case, had sought asylum in Ireland. After his application was denied, he appealed the decision while remaining in the country. He left Ireland for Turkey soon after Carney’s death and later traveled to Jordan. Irish police are seeking his extradition.

News Media asked Martin whether the case highlighted shortcomings in Ireland’s immigration system and whether the law should be revised.

“We’re looking at all of that in terms of tightening up the laws,” Martin said. He added that when asylum claims are rejected, authorities must ensure “fast movement in terms of the consequences of that.”

Crime data

Opponents of Ireland’s immigration policies argue that migrants account for a disproportionate share of crime. Those who reject that claim say it unfairly targets the country’s expanding foreign-born population. The dispute has been difficult to resolve because national crime reports generally do not include suspects’ nationalities, leaving little public data to support either side.

Women’s rights advocates and several Irish lawmakers have called for greater transparency, including the publication of crime figures categorized by nationality.

Asked whether crime statistics should identify the nationality of alleged suspects, Martin said he supported the use of such information. “I’ve no issue with data … because that can inform, because sometimes you get a kind of distorted picture,” he said. “So as far as I’m concerned, data is important.”

But Martin pushed back on the argument that nationality itself drives crime.

“I don’t think crime is specific to any nationality,” he said. “But there are issues there, and in some cases, yes, there’s been horrific crimes committed, but not all by illegal migrants either.”

Housing pressures

Housing has become another flashpoint as Ireland struggles to build enough homes to keep pace with its growing population.

Martin acknowledged that workers arriving legally in Ireland add to housing demand but said his government’s answer is to increase supply, with about 36,000 homes built last year, up more than 20% from the previous year and the highest annual total since 2011.

The Irish government’s reliance on hotels and other properties to house asylum seekers has itself become a flashpoint. The state spent about $1.4 billion on asylum accommodation and related services in 2025, while also buying properties outright, including the sprawling Citywest Hotel and Convention Centre for about $175 million.

The allocation of scarce public housing has further fueled the immigration debate.

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The pressure is particularly acute in Dublin, where figures released by the city council this month showed 42% of the 15,005 households on its social-housing waiting list were categorized as non-Irish, fueling anger online as Ireland’s homeless population hit a record high last month.

Nationally, 28.7% of social housing applicants — nearly 18,000 households — were non-Irish citizens in 2025, according to government figures provided to News Media. That included nearly 3,200 applicants from outside the EU with refugee status, up 64% from the previous year.

Asked whether Irish citizens should receive preferential treatment for social housing amid pressure on waiting lists, Martin backed the idea, saying that “our position is basically its citizens get priority.”

WATCH: Irish PM Micheál Martin addresses immigration’s impact on Ireland’s housing crisis

A country transformed

Ireland’s demographic transformation has been rapid.

Nearly one in four people living in Ireland was born abroad, up from about one in seven two decades ago. At 23.3%, Ireland now has the fourth-highest percentage of foreign-born residents in the European Union, according to Eurostat.

The transformation accelerated after the EU expanded eastward in 2004, a decision that helped fuel a sharp rise in immigration during Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” economic boom, when years of rapid growth transformed the country from one of Western Europe’s poorer economies into one of its wealthiest.

“It’s a bit like America really, free movement for the states here,” Martin said. “Our economy’s expanded hugely.”

Martin pointed to financial services and medical devices as industries that rely on skilled foreign workers, including non-EU workers arriving on work permits. More than half a million non-EU citizens were living in Ireland at the start of 2025, accounting for 9.3% of the population, according to Eurostat.

“It has been very dramatic, I agree, in the last three decades, largely because of the economic growth of Ireland,” Martin said. “You can’t switch off an economy either.”

Ireland’s economy has undergone a remarkable turnaround since the economic stagnation of the 1980s, through the “Celtic Tiger” boom and a devastating crash in 2008, before rebounding strongly. Over those decades, Ireland became a major European base for U.S. multinationals including Apple, Meta, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

Martin has been at the center of Irish politics through much of that period, serving in successive Fianna Fáil-led governments from 1997 before becoming prime minister, or Taoiseach, in 2020 and returning to the post in 2025.

Ireland’s economy continued to expand in 2025, with GDP growing 8%, according to Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO).

But prosperity has not eliminated pressure on households: nearly 45% reported difficulty making ends meet, while 64% identified housing and the same share identified inflation and the cost of living as among Ireland’s most pressing problems, according to the CSO.

Ireland’s more recent migration pressures have included a post-pandemic surge in asylum applicants, including people arriving from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Applications jumped from roughly 3,500 a year before COVID to a record 18,561 in 2024, before falling nearly 30% last year and continuing to decline in 2026.

Separately, more than 120,000 Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion arrived under the EU’s Temporary Protection system rather than the asylum system. Martin said roughly 80,000 remain in Ireland, with many now working and contributing to the economy.

A nation of emigrants

Martin also emphasized that EU free movement works in both directions, with Irish citizens themselves living and working throughout the bloc.

“Irish people are working and living all over Europe,” Martin said. “That’s the other side of that story and that is something perhaps that we’re not as conscious of, but it is reality.”

Martin also placed Ireland’s modern demographic transformation within the country’s much longer history of emigration, pointing to the exodus that followed the Irish Famine.

“Ireland had 8 million people in 1845 before the Great Famine. That led to the big wave of Irish people migrating to come to America,” Martin said.

“We’re not at that level yet on the island of Ireland, so we need to look at it through the broad sweep of history in a historical perspective.”