A substantial majority of voters, 74 per cent, want strict limits to be placed on the number of refugees allowed into the State, according to the latest Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll. Only 17 per cent disagree and 9 per cent have no opinion.
The support for strictly limiting the number of refugees is strongest in Dublin (83 per cent) and among older age groups. It also varies from 84 per cent among Progressive Democrats supporters to 74 per cent of those who vote for Fianna Fail.
Despite the overwhelming support for strictly limiting the number of refugees entering the State, a majority of the electorate also favours taking a more generous approach to refugees and immigrants.
The poll finds that 60 per cent of voters agree that a more generous approach than at present should be taken to refugees and immigrants in view of our own history of emigration and our current prosperity. Some 30 per cent disagree and 10 per cent don't know.
The apparently contradictory responses in attitudes can be explained by the general nature of the question about the approach of people to refugees and immigrants. It signals that voters were displeased with the inhumane treatment meted out to queueing refugees and asylum-seekers at the immigration centre in Mount Street, in Dublin, towards the end of last year while, at the same time, wishing to retain strict limits on the numbers coming into the State.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, is due shortly to report to Cabinet on proposals for establishing a separate immigration agency. Some 7,000 people entered the State last year seeking asylum status. Fine Gael recently proposed that there should be an annual quota of 10,000 immigrants allowed into the State to ease labour shortages.
However, the poll shows less clear-cut opinion on whether only those refugees who are qualified to fill specific job vacancies should be allowed into the State. A total of 49 per cent disagree, 42 per cent agree and 9 per cent have no opinion.
A majority of Fianna Fail and Labour supporters, equal at 53 per cent in each party, are against limiting entry to the State only to suitably qualified refugees who match specific job vacancies. Support for such limitations is strongest, 58 per cent, among PD supporters.
The poll was conducted among a national quota sample of 1,000 voters at 100 sampling points throughout all constituencies in the State on Monday and Tuesday of last week.