Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland is what socialism looks like before the money runs out

00:00:00.000 Tonight, what does socialism look like when you haven't run out of money yet?

00:00:04.560 It's May 22nd, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show. 0.83

00:00:10.460 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:00:21.920 I think it was Margaret Thatcher who once said,

00:00:24.880 socialism is fun until you run out of other people's money to spend.

00:00:28.620 And that's what's happening right now to Zoran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, who's basically driving away wealthy people and his plans for free everything.

00:00:38.620 They're just not working.

00:00:39.880 But what happens if you were a small enough country, smaller than New York City, and you had billions of dollars coming in from foreign international companies because you were a bit of a tax haven?

00:00:51.440 Well, that defines Ireland.

00:00:53.520 There's only 5 million people on the whole island.

00:00:55.420 And it's become the European headquarters for so many massive American firms who are here, partly because they do have offices and staff here, but mainly for tax reasons.

00:01:05.720 It's the same reason why our own Prime Minister, Mark Carney, hid Brookfield Asset Management's assets in places like Bermuda and the Isle of Man to avoid taxes.

00:01:17.020 So Ireland actually has a GDP of more than $160,000 per person.

00:01:23.680 Like on paper, it's one of the richest places in the world.

00:01:27.240 Now, the problem is that is enough money to forestall a crisis from some bad decisions,

00:01:35.440 from overspending, from a decision that this country has made to allow mass immigration almost without limit. 0.66

00:01:44.100 We're here to talk about this in the city of Galway, where Galway West is having a by-election today. 0.99

00:01:50.120 And I'm just giving some thoughts after we've done some of the streeters, but you'll see those if we haven't shown them already.

00:01:59.920 It was absolutely unanimous, the views we heard.

00:02:04.420 And why not? 0.85

00:02:05.700 When you have that much dough and when you are that certain that socialism, it means you're generous and that allying yourself with foreign migrants means you're virtuous.

00:02:19.140 us, why wouldn't you continue? I mean, I suppose it makes sense. If you are getting all that money, 0.98

00:02:25.380 why not be generous with it? It's an interesting visit to an interesting place. Well, we started

00:02:30.600 off in an area in Galway that was largely American tourists. And although they were quite friendly,

00:02:36.080 that's not why we came here. We came here to talk about the by-election in Galway West,

00:02:40.860 one of the two special elections today in Ireland. So we moved a little bit outside the tourist zone

00:02:46.520 and we stood outside a convenience store ice cream shop and boy did we ever meet a lot of real Irish

00:02:52.760 and you know I come from Toronto which I think fancies itself a friendly city but in Toronto

00:02:59.100 when you beckon people to come over and talk politics you're usually met with an angry stare

00:03:04.740 and lots of swears at you. Not here in Ireland most people were happy to talk even if it was

00:03:11.520 just to say sorry I'm in a rush I can't stop. You know absolutely lovely people and we must

00:03:16.200 to talk to a 15 or so, I feel like I have a bit of a taste to go. You know, it's really fun to travel

00:03:20.740 as a journalist for Rebel News because otherwise I would be a crazy man if I said, hey, come here,

00:03:26.760 let me ask you a question. People would say you're crazy. But when you have a microphone and a camera, 0.99

00:03:30.720 it's not crazy. It's a job. So it's one of my favorite parts of the job. And I guess my report

00:03:37.660 to you, and I'll show you the videos very quickly, is, well, it was almost unanimous

00:03:45.520 that leftist, socialist, labor right policies, globalism, open borders, that's the spirit of

00:03:53.920 Galway West. There was one man who, when we pressed him, expressed some skepticism about

00:03:58.920 immigration, but I put the question to a lot of people, and they were adamant. They supported it, 0.98

00:04:03.860 And I felt like there was almost a peer pressure.

00:04:06.740 It was such an intense feeling.

00:04:09.020 I wonder if anyone, if they would have disagreed with mass immigration and things like that or fuel taxes.

00:04:14.980 I wonder if they would have had the courage to talk to me about it.

00:04:18.480 Because I think in this town, the peer pressure is so strong.

00:04:22.520 Let me put it this way.

00:04:23.560 It was, other than one flicker of doubt by one person, it was unanimous.

00:04:28.540 And we were just randomly sampling people.

00:04:31.920 There was a lot of virtue signaling.

00:04:33.120 We met a city councilor who wore a keffiyeh, and I just happened to notice there's a Palestinian flag flying over there.

00:04:39.940 I mean, that's part of the virtue signaling.

00:04:42.820 There was one couple that we talked to.

00:04:45.320 They seem successful, hardworking.

00:04:49.000 I mean, they seem like good people.

00:04:51.240 And I think I asked them about immigration and things like that, and they pushed back so hard.

00:04:57.120 I think it's become part of their core identity.

00:05:00.620 And I don't know, it's interesting because I spend a lot of time when I come to Ireland with the dissidents,

00:05:07.160 with the citizen journalists, with the protesters against mass immigration.

00:05:11.440 And I'm in that world and I meet dozens or even hundreds of people who think that way.

00:05:15.860 But obviously the people at an anti-immigration march are going to be anti-immigration.

00:05:20.400 And the people who disagree will not be there.

00:05:22.700 Today we went in a very friendly way in Galway.

00:05:25.240 And I certainly didn't pick any fights in when I asked challenging questions.

00:05:30.060 I did so as gently as possible.

00:05:32.020 I didn't want to get into a quarrel with anyone.

00:05:34.480 But holy smokes, is there a different Ireland.

00:05:38.380 And I think open border immigration is a core part of their thoughts about who they are. 0.61

00:05:47.960 And I don't know, it's certainly interesting.

00:05:51.160 And I think I know who's going to win this by-election.

00:05:53.280 I'll just tell you that right now.

00:05:55.240 We're going to see if we can find anyone who even knows they're in an election.

00:06:00.240 And if they do, how do they vote?

00:06:02.240 We've already had a friendly hello from some Canadians who saw us and saw my Rebel News shirt

00:06:08.240 and waved and came over to say a quick hi.

00:06:10.240 Here's a moment with them.

00:06:11.240 Hey, how are you? What's your name?

00:06:13.240 John.

00:06:14.240 I'm from Canada.

00:06:15.240 We're from Canada.

00:06:16.240 Are you serious? Are you serious?

00:06:18.240 How are you?

00:06:19.240 Holy smokes, are you here on vacation?

00:06:20.240 Yes, we're here for a wedding.

00:06:22.240 Oh, that's cool. Here in Galway itself?

00:06:23.240 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:06:24.240 Well, good.

00:06:25.040 Well, you know, I won't put you on camera.

00:06:26.400 It's so cool watching you.

00:06:27.480 I was like, that is Rebel News right there.

00:06:29.820 Isn't that fun?

00:06:30.680 And we were just talking to a lady about what's going on.

00:06:33.660 And she's like, yeah, well, it's hard to get what's really happening.

00:06:38.100 And we're like, yeah, yeah, it's the same for us.

00:06:39.900 So we're watching all these non-mainstream media things.

00:06:43.280 What a small world.

00:06:45.800 What part of Canada are you from?

00:06:47.980 We're from Kelowna.

00:06:48.940 Yeah, Kelowna, sure.

00:06:49.940 Yeah, I love it there.

00:06:51.440 Well, I won't keep you guys.

00:06:52.700 Congratulations.

00:06:53.100 I'm flattered sure well that was a friendly welcome to Galway you know a lot of Irish folks

00:06:59.420 watch Rebel News too because we tell the other side of the story I'm gonna see if we can find

00:07:04.040 some voters I get the feeling that it's just a lovely afternoon and politics is the last thing

00:07:09.420 on people's minds we'll see what we can do so we're from Canada we're here to do a story on

00:07:14.140 the by-election have you voted today or do you plan to vote no I voted already do you think a

00:07:19.800 A lot of people are paying attention to the by-election,

00:07:21.820 or is it sort of a low turnout, low energy kind of thing?

00:07:26.740 Are people talking about the election?

00:07:28.600 Are they excited in any way?

00:07:30.320 I think people are talking about the election,

00:07:33.220 but I think in general with most Western democratic governments,

00:07:40.120 the electorate tend to be pissed off with the government

00:07:42.980 because they can't control rising prices.

00:07:46.480 Are you voting?

00:07:48.020 I am, yeah.

00:07:49.260 Oh, have you thought about who you're going to vote for?

00:07:51.260 Well, kind of, I suppose.

00:07:52.920 Oh, OK. No problem. We'll let you go. Thank you.

00:07:56.620 Now, are there any issues that motivate you?

00:07:58.640 Like, are you worried about housing or immigration?

00:08:00.880 Yeah, the same thing as everyone, I suppose.

00:08:02.580 Housing, you know, the cost of living and, you know what I mean,

00:08:05.240 hopefully one of them will do something about it, you know what I mean?

00:08:08.100 What did you think of the recent fuel tax protests?

00:08:10.980 Yeah, I thought that was kind of necessary, I suppose, in a sense,

00:08:14.580 because I think the government was probably running away

00:08:17.480 with making money off of people,

00:08:19.700 like hard-earned money off of people.

00:08:22.260 I think it's a privilege that a lot of the world doesn't have,

00:08:26.380 and therefore I think it's our duty and a privilege to do it.

00:08:30.300 And I've always voted for the same party.

00:08:32.220 Which one's that?

00:08:33.000 Labour Party.

00:08:34.140 And why's that?

00:08:34.980 Well, we have Helen Ogdo this year,

00:08:36.800 and she came to Ireland as a refugee,

00:08:39.460 lived in direct provision for many years,

00:08:42.300 did a huge amount of voluntary work,

00:08:44.040 went into local government and got elected as a councillor last year, I think.

00:08:49.520 And so hopefully now she'll get a dalcy this year.

00:08:52.580 And it's a fingers up to the...

00:08:55.200 I think there's a movement towards the far right, unfortunately.

00:08:58.720 So every left voter needs to get out there and vote to swing things, unfortunately.

00:09:05.140 There was a recent protest over fuel taxes.

00:09:08.240 Is that an issue for you?

00:09:10.600 Not so much for us.

00:09:11.920 we both work from home so we're not in the car too often but i mean it's noticeable effects

00:09:16.500 everybody we do have a car so we're not immune to it really at the same time

00:09:19.240 how are you i'm from uh we're from ontario what are you doing here just vacation nice yeah well

00:09:26.360 it's nice to meet you thanks for saying hi was is there something on your mind immigration or

00:09:31.260 fuel taxes or the cost of living what what are you concerned about in ireland or is everything

00:09:35.800 going great immigration is that very bad and uh is the party you chose the democrats you mentioned

00:09:43.000 are they uh skeptics on immigration will they do something about it trying to yeah are you

00:09:47.960 political uh not really yeah trying to stay away from that kind of stuff well that's a good idea

00:09:52.280 yeah if you had have you voted before i haven't never voted yeah well i mean maybe that's a sign

00:09:57.880 things are going fair enough you don't have to care about politics who should i vote for

00:10:01.320 well i'm not going to give you that advice i'm a foreigner i'm a canadian as am i oh are you a

00:10:05.960 canadian where are you from i'm from manchester oh okay well then there's a good reason that

00:10:11.000 neither of us are voting yeah exactly i'm answer from canada that's my friend lincoln and who's

00:10:16.040 your little doggy this is bradley right on so you voted and i see it says who did you vote for so i

00:10:21.880 voted for sheila garrity and tell me a little bit more about her i'm unfamiliar sheila garrity she

00:10:27.320 is an independent candidate for galway west and she is a lecturer she was in the university of

00:10:31.880 galway for many years and now she's up in i want to say ucd one of the dublin universities she

00:10:36.840 people people will say she doesn't come from a political background but anybody who's worked in

00:10:40.280 a third level institution knows that it's political life is political how we live our lives are

00:10:44.280 political sheila's been very involved in that she's a great researcher she's empathetic she's kind

00:10:50.520 she's compassionate she takes things on board and she supports people well she sounds amazing it

00:10:56.280 It sounds like you have a personal connection.

00:10:58.020 Yeah, well, I only got to know her during the presidential campaign.

00:11:01.220 She was co-convenor with myself for the Catherine Connolly.

00:11:04.300 So you're deeply involved.

00:11:05.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:06.660 So I got to know her through that.

00:11:08.420 And, like, she taught me a lot of things.

00:11:10.320 Like, I'm new into politics myself in the last two years.

00:11:14.320 I'm a local city councillor.

00:11:15.580 Oh, are you?

00:11:16.220 Yeah, yeah.

00:11:16.640 Oh, I found the right person.

00:11:18.220 Well, what would you say the leading issues in Galway are?

00:11:21.220 Are there problems in this city that need helping?

00:11:24.060 It's run by a very efficient, inefficient bunch,

00:11:28.860 and money that's been wasted would want to be rectified and sorted out.

00:11:33.040 That's a universal story everywhere in the world.

00:11:35.120 Is there any issue, put aside the people,

00:11:37.440 it sounds like you have some strong opinions on the people,

00:11:40.000 is there an issue that's on your mind apart from the people

00:11:43.320 that you care about or think about?

00:11:46.040 The biggest issue that we have here in town, in Galway,

00:11:49.240 is the lack of um housing for people like myself i'm sorry a pensioner yeah and i'm still paying

00:12:00.360 rent you know because it's just impossible to buy a place or anything like that oh you see inflation

00:12:06.760 yeah aggressive food food inflation and there's also um fuel prices are going up very difficult

00:12:16.920 to get what do you think of the recent protests about fuel taxes i think a lot of it should be

00:12:23.640 blamed on the trump administration but people don't see it that far i'm afraid they'd see it

00:12:28.840 as a much more local issue that the government isn't putting in a few subsidies i got a tough

00:12:35.720 question for you don't have to answer it if you don't want to how about the subject of mass

00:12:40.120 immigration some folks don't like talking about that but other folks think we got to talk about

00:12:43.960 Well, look, I think if people want to come into the country, they can.

00:12:47.460 As long as they work and they pay taxes like everyone else, why not? 1.00

00:12:50.860 Some of them don't, right?

00:12:52.140 Well, look, that's not really my problem.

00:12:54.200 I don't want to say no to them either, 0.91

00:12:56.920 but it should be the same kind of policy as any other country with immigration. 0.78

00:13:00.940 You know what I mean?

00:13:01.360 If you can come into the country and you can pay your taxes and work,

00:13:05.000 fair play to you. 0.99

00:13:05.580 If not, well, then maybe there shouldn't be a place for you either.

00:13:09.760 Is the far right represented in this campaign?

00:13:12.160 It is, unfortunately, yeah.

00:13:13.960 Who are you worried about?

00:13:16.080 I'd be worried to say it on the media.

00:13:20.200 Now, are there any parties that you're worried about?

00:13:23.500 I mean, the governing coalition, would you call it centre-left?

00:13:28.200 What do you think of the governing coalition?

00:13:29.700 The governing coalition would be centre-left, yeah.

00:13:31.780 But I think the housing crisis in Ireland in particular is making them very unpopular.

00:13:38.020 Nobody seems to be able to sort out the housing crisis.

00:13:41.640 I have three young children myself.

00:13:42.940 if it's, well, they're in their 30s now,

00:13:45.220 and they're finding it very hard to get houses

00:13:46.960 and to get onto the property ladder.

00:13:49.300 That and the cost of living.

00:13:52.040 So by-elections are notorious for giving the thumbs up

00:13:55.300 to the sitting government.

00:13:56.740 So we would expect a kind of a rebel kind of a vote at this stage.

00:14:01.520 Now, can I ask you a controversial question?

00:14:03.200 You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

00:14:05.340 Some candidates have been talking about mass immigration,

00:14:09.200 and they think that that's been a social cohesion problem.

00:14:12.940 and it's exacerbated housing.

00:14:15.980 What do you think of that idea?

00:14:17.480 Is that on your mind?

00:14:18.460 Do you agree with that or disagree?

00:14:20.340 No, it's not something that concerns me yet.

00:14:23.400 I work in engineering,

00:14:24.860 and we've got a lot of great engineers from all around the world.

00:14:29.060 So I think it's unfortunate that it's such a topic of conversation at the minute.

00:14:34.600 Definitely not something that would be on my mind at all now.

00:14:37.680 And I think it's easier for people to blame that

00:14:39.960 rather than the actual problems where it stems from,

00:14:42.040 which is the fact that houses aren't being built in Ireland. 0.95

00:14:44.580 That's not an immigrant problem.

00:14:46.540 That's a government problem needing to build more and supply more.

00:14:49.120 What's the number one issue on your mind in this by-election,

00:14:53.380 other than your personal connection to what sounds like a very hard-working candidate?

00:14:57.580 You see, there isn't really a number one issue.

00:14:59.680 What we have here in Ireland is we have a legacy of maybe poor decision-making over the years,

00:15:05.380 poor planning, and it's all coming to a crux.

00:15:09.260 So now we have a cost-of-living crisis.

00:15:10.720 we have a housing crisis we have a health care crisis this is what we've been hearing for years

00:15:15.460 and nothing seems to be really getting done so what I'd love to see is no matter who goes in

00:15:19.940 I want to see somebody who'll try and pull everything together for Galway West and go

00:15:24.100 hang on a second there isn't a single issue everything's connected we need to start working

00:15:28.800 with the communities and with the people to find out what's going on and help try and change things

00:15:33.360 from the ground up. Has the issues of the fuel tax or immigration come up at all because we've

00:15:39.200 heard those in other places. Is that a problem for you in Galway? Not me. No, I don't. Migrants

00:15:47.560 don't bother me or anything like that. And the person I voted to isn't Irish originally.

00:15:52.960 So I just said, I give it a try. I have no qualms about that at all. Some people say

00:15:59.920 that that's in part a result of high immigration. There's so many people looking for housing.

00:16:05.840 Do you think that's a legitimate criticism?

00:16:09.140 No, no, it's, okay, sorry, how would I put it?

00:16:18.460 It's not the fault of people.

00:16:21.060 I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just saying it's a result.

00:16:23.520 No, it's the fault of our own government, our own councils, I mean, for instance, Galway City Council,

00:16:32.660 They haven't built any homes in the last 15 years, you know, for people.

00:16:41.060 And there's just no place for people to go to get a house, to get a place, you know.

00:16:48.860 Are there any other issues?

00:16:51.600 Some people talk about immigration, but the main parties don't like to talk about it.

00:16:55.680 Do you have a view on that?

00:16:57.580 I think in general it's been found that a reasonable amount of immigration

00:17:03.120 creates economic wealth for virtually every country in the world,

00:17:06.980 including America, including Canada, and the European community, yeah.

00:17:11.500 Can I put a controversial question to you?

00:17:13.620 Okay, I thought you'd answer it.

00:17:14.840 It's a tough one.

00:17:16.220 Critics might say that opening the door to migrants is one reason

00:17:20.760 that housing prices have gone up, because of supply and demand.

00:17:23.820 What would you say to those critics?

00:17:24.900 I would absolutely disagree with that 100% the reason we don't have enough

00:17:29.140 houses is because we're not building enough houses when I was growing up if

00:17:34.740 you couldn't afford a house you were given a house by the state there was and

00:17:38.880 then the state outsource that to private enterprise and there have been no

00:17:43.260 public service houses being built in the last I don't know how many years so

00:17:47.040 that's where the tragedy lies and I don't know how they can't fathom how 1.00

00:17:51.660 they can't sort that out i i see you're wearing is that i think that's a keffiyeh is that right

00:17:56.540 is that part of your political uh focus as well yeah absolutely i i don't like war i don't like

00:18:02.060 conflict i really i would have thought we're a bit more enlightened a bit more knowledgeable

00:18:06.540 as a society and to see such devastation being carried out across the world is heartbreaking

00:18:11.420 so if by me wearing my my scarf helps bring awareness to that i will keep on wearing it

00:18:16.940 until this ends and the same right across the world there shouldn't be people shouldn't be

00:18:20.460 dying or people shouldn't be subjected to anything like that well it's a pleasure talking with you

00:18:25.980 thanks for stopping to talk with me where are you guys from we're from toronto canada yeah

00:18:31.260 and this is a little we have a little news station called rebel news so when we go down to cork we're

00:18:36.300 in the rebel county this is my first time in galway yeah yeah well i'll tell you something

00:18:40.540 like to rent a semi-detached house a three-bedroom semi-detached house and go away for a month is

00:18:52.780 two and a half to three thousand euros it must be hard for young people to get a house yeah

00:18:57.740 absolutely and also even for students it's a problem and what do you think about the recent

00:19:03.580 fuel tax protest do you have any thoughts on that yeah um i'm a democrat at heart and i think if you

00:19:09.820 You have a problem with the way the government is working there.

00:19:12.880 We have elections and that's how you should deal with it.

00:19:15.320 I would be totally against the use of innocent people in such a situation.

00:19:21.700 People couldn't get to work.

00:19:22.720 People couldn't, ambulance couldn't run.

00:19:25.680 People are worried because they don't have enough fuel for heating their houses.

00:19:30.940 And a blockade down in the docks using threatening behaviour is no way to deal with this situation in my opinion.

00:19:37.200 And I don't want to press you because I just wanted to hear your point of view.

00:19:40.560 I mean, actually, can I throw a tough one at you?

00:19:43.680 Go on, yeah.

00:19:45.060 Now, you might not like this question.

00:19:46.400 You don't have to answer if you don't like it.

00:19:47.840 Yeah, go first.

00:19:48.980 Some of the things you talked about, high prices and housing,

00:19:51.980 some critics would say that some of that is driven by supply and demand.

00:19:56.700 If you bring in an enormous number of migrants, including from Ukraine and from other parts,

00:20:01.520 that supply and demand would drive up the price of housing.

00:20:04.800 That's a contrary point of view to yours.

00:20:08.360 What would you say to that?

00:20:09.520 Yeah, that seems to be something that's put out there.

00:20:13.180 It's really hard to say.

00:20:14.780 I find something like that a very difficult thing to swallow, I suppose.

00:20:18.940 If you take a walk around here, we have so many empty properties.

00:20:22.080 Really?

00:20:22.340 We also have a lot of properties that are up for short-term lets.

00:20:28.340 We have a lot of working immigrants who come to the country,

00:20:32.680 economic immigrants who are coming to the country and who are helped propping up our education system

00:20:36.740 our child care centre. There's also IPAS refugee

00:20:40.540 applicants too right? There are yes but I don't think it's as high as

00:20:44.740 people like to make it out to be and it's definitely not something that

00:20:48.600 I've witnessed and I actually feel very sorry for people who have to go to an IPAS centre

00:20:52.340 because it's not something that people want to do by choice. It's like going into emergency accommodation

00:20:56.560 for any ordinary person. Those centres from 1.00

00:21:00.280 from what i've been told from people who are living in them they're not a very nice place

00:21:04.040 like you're crammed in you can't cook your own food there isn't a place to go out and play like

00:21:09.340 i don't think they're coming over by choice to try and take advantage of something in part

00:21:13.640 immigration does drive out housing because you have a lot of people that need a roof over their

00:21:18.460 head yeah that's a contentious issue in ireland at the moment but you can't very well dump the 0.98

00:21:25.900 ukrainians and you can't very well dump people that are escaping from the kind of hellish regimes

00:21:31.120 in northern africa do you have to take some social responsibility yeah some have walked over

00:21:37.500 the border from northern ireland and discarded their papers and i mean they got to the uk which

00:21:43.200 is a hospitable place but they came into ireland i mean the uk is a safe place but maybe some

00:21:51.700 people would say they were looking for a better deal for housing or benefits is that is that

00:21:57.100 fear-mongering or is that given my own experience i used to be on social welfare uh access to those

00:22:03.100 things is quite difficult it doesn't matter where you come from it really doesn't matter where you

00:22:06.480 come from there's there's there's a lot of narrative around that and yeah i don't i don't

00:22:11.620 agree fully with the sentiments like the irish have a big heart they do yeah and so did the

00:22:16.660 Canadian. Well, you're friendly. Thank you. It's easy having those point of view. I recently read

00:22:24.000 and I was talking to a professor and a scholar of Ireland the other day. Ireland is so wealthy.

00:22:30.140 It's one of the wealthiest countries in the world on a GDP per capita basis, even though a lot of

00:22:36.280 those are sort of artificial numbers because Google and Facebook and other American companies

00:22:42.020 have an office here for tax evasion reasons.

00:22:46.160 But it is true that this is a very wealthy country

00:22:48.820 and they have an enormous budget surplus.

00:22:52.500 And when you've got so much easy money, free money,

00:22:55.880 it's easy to be a socialist.

00:22:58.420 It's easy to have open borders

00:23:00.000 because you can just throw money at things.

00:23:03.060 I asked probably half the people

00:23:04.900 if there was a correlation between high housing prices

00:23:09.700 and shortage of housing and migration.

00:23:12.020 And they either denied it, which I think is a repudiation of basic supply and demand economics,

00:23:18.000 or they said, well, the problem is we haven't built enough houses.

00:23:21.420 And that, I suppose, is technically true. 0.95

00:23:24.080 But wouldn't you then stop the mass immigration until you fix the housing problem? 0.78

00:23:29.740 It would never in a million years, you know, would that thought occur to them that, okay, we need more housing for mass immigration. 0.91

00:23:39.320 We're not building more housing for mass immigration.

00:23:42.020 therefore keep the mass immigration going and just lament the lack of housing. 0.99

00:23:46.580 No one would say well let's pause until we fix that. I don't know I love this 1.00

00:23:51.020 town and I've only been here for half a day it seems like a very musical town

00:23:55.640 a very cultural town there's a beautiful tourist area with many great bars and

00:23:59.460 pubs and there's a folk festival that I absolutely wish I were here for because

00:24:05.140 you know even meeting the buskers and chatting with them this is a great place

00:24:08.980 and it's absolutely going to slam dunk it for the left-wing parties and that's

00:24:18.180 Ireland in 2026 what can I say what a pleasure to be here and good luck Ireland

00:24:25.380 For Rebel News, I'm Ezra Levant.

Rebel News Podcast - May 23, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland is what socialism looks like before the money runs out

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