Harris says Farage comparison a ‘dog whistle’

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

Simon Harris has said it is a “dog whistle” to compare him to Nigel Farage.

Social Democrats TD Garry Gannon recently said the Tánaiste and members of the Government were following a “playbook” of politics similar to Mr Farage, the leader of Reform UK, and US President Donald Trump.

Mr Gannon made the remark after Mr Harris said migration into Ireland was “too high”.

Labour MEP Aodhan O Riordain also described the Tanaiste’s comments as “dog whistling”.

On Thursday, Mr Harris said migration and diversity were “good” things but reiterated his view that immigration had “risen at too high a rate”.

Engaging with Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan during Leaders’ Questions, Mr Harris said: “You haven’t said it, but I do think some of the comments from your party this week were disappointing.

“Because to accuse someone of dog whistling at the same time calling them Nigel Farage, which is a dog whistle, isn’t a mature debate, when people want to, from other political parties, immediately just call me names for stating a fact, in my view, that migration has risen at too high a rate.”

Mr O’Callaghan emphasised sectors in Ireland that had higher proportions of migrant workers as he challenged the Tanaiste to outline where he would like to see reductions in migration.

He told Mr Harris that his “words matter”, and said: “Where misinformation is spread, we must challenge it.

“Where there are attempts to sow hate and division, we must build cohesion.

“Tanaiste, leadership means bringing calm to a debate, not inflaming it.

“You said that migration outside of the number of international protection applicants is too high.

“What I’d like to know is, what sectors will you be targeting to reduce the number of migrant workers?”

He added: “Will you be targeting multinationals, pharmaceutical and tech companies? You know well that these sectors provide a huge amount of employment and taxation that funds our public services.

“Will you be targeting the health and care sectors? As you know, if it wasn’t for migrants working as doctors and nurses and carers, these services would crumble?”

Mr O’Callaghan also raised the food processing, tourism, construction, and hospitality sectors.

Mr Harris replied: “I often say our health service would fall over if it wasn’t for people coming – and I take your point that there’s many other parts of our economy and our society.”

However, he said the country “had to have a clear migration policy” and that increased immigration put pressure on public services.

Mr Harris told Mr O’Callaghan: “It is just a statement of fact that our population has grown at a very, very fast rate.

“It is a statement of fact that for every 10,000 people that come into our country, roughly 3,000 more homes are needed.

“I believe that we need to actually look at migration in the round, and we need to plan for it -, and we need to have a mature discussion about what is an appropriate level of migration.”

The Fine Gael leader said this would involve analysing workforce needs “sector by sector” .

Holding up a graph in the Dail, Mr Harris said his view that migration had risen too high was supported by data from Eurostat.

He said the chart showed that Ireland’s population in terms of net migration had risen “way faster” than the European average.

Mr O’Callaghan pressed the Tánaiste on which sectors had an “oversupply” and where he was “going to reduce the supply of migrant workers”.

Mr Harris said: “Yes, we continue to need people to come. Nobody is proposing a migration policy that would see us not issuing work visas or work permits.

“But it has to be looked at in a balanced manner. It has to be looked at sector by sector.”

Mr Harris said this happens in “most mature democracies” and added: “We’re late to this.”

The Tanaiste also said that 29% of the total immigration figures related to international protection applicants.

“So I reject the argument – you haven’t made today, but some have made it in recent days – that international protection is an incidental part of this conversation, I reject that: It’s not.”

He said that 80 per cent of the 18,561 applications for international protection last year were rejected in the first round and described this is a “challenge”.

“They were found not to qualify for international protection. That needs to be addressed.”

The International Protection Appeal Tribunal received 8,835 appeals last year and made a total of decisions on 2,877 in 2024, which also relate to other years.

A total of 28 per cent of appeals in 2024 were successful through either asylum or subsidiary protection.