EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland is what socialism looks like before the money runs out
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Summary
What does socialism look like when you haven t run out of money yet? In the city of Galway, a special election took place today, and the people voted in favor of open borders, universal basic income, and universal health care.
Transcript
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Tonight, what does socialism look like when you haven't run out of money yet?
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It's May 22nd, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
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I think it was Margaret Thatcher who once said,
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socialism is fun until you run out of other people's money to spend.
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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.
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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?
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There's only 5 million people on the whole island.
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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.
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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.
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So Ireland actually has a GDP of more than $160,000 per person.
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Like on paper, it's one of the richest places in the world.
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Now, the problem is that is enough money to forestall a crisis from some bad decisions,
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from overspending, from a decision that this country has made to allow mass immigration almost without limit.
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We're here to talk about this in the city of Galway, where Galway West is having a by-election today.
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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.
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It was absolutely unanimous, the views we heard.
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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.
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us, why wouldn't you continue? I mean, I suppose it makes sense. If you are getting all that money,
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why not be generous with it? It's an interesting visit to an interesting place. Well, we started
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off in an area in Galway that was largely American tourists. And although they were quite friendly,
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that's not why we came here. We came here to talk about the by-election in Galway West,
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one of the two special elections today in Ireland. So we moved a little bit outside the tourist zone
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and we stood outside a convenience store ice cream shop and boy did we ever meet a lot of real Irish
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and you know I come from Toronto which I think fancies itself a friendly city but in Toronto
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when you beckon people to come over and talk politics you're usually met with an angry stare
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and lots of swears at you. Not here in Ireland most people were happy to talk even if it was
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just to say sorry I'm in a rush I can't stop. You know absolutely lovely people and we must
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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
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as a journalist for Rebel News because otherwise I would be a crazy man if I said, hey, come here,
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let me ask you a question. People would say you're crazy. But when you have a microphone and a camera,
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it's not crazy. It's a job. So it's one of my favorite parts of the job. And I guess my report
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to you, and I'll show you the videos very quickly, is, well, it was almost unanimous
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that leftist, socialist, labor right policies, globalism, open borders, that's the spirit of
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Galway West. There was one man who, when we pressed him, expressed some skepticism about
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immigration, but I put the question to a lot of people, and they were adamant. They supported it,
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And I felt like there was almost a peer pressure.
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I wonder if anyone, if they would have disagreed with mass immigration and things like that or fuel taxes.
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I wonder if they would have had the courage to talk to me about it.
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Because I think in this town, the peer pressure is so strong.
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It was, other than one flicker of doubt by one person, it was unanimous.
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We met a city councilor who wore a keffiyeh, and I just happened to notice there's a Palestinian flag flying over there.
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And I think I asked them about immigration and things like that, and they pushed back so hard.
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I think it's become part of their core identity.
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And I don't know, it's interesting because I spend a lot of time when I come to Ireland with the dissidents,
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with the citizen journalists, with the protesters against mass immigration.
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And I'm in that world and I meet dozens or even hundreds of people who think that way.
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But obviously the people at an anti-immigration march are going to be anti-immigration.
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Today we went in a very friendly way in Galway.
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And I certainly didn't pick any fights in when I asked challenging questions.
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I didn't want to get into a quarrel with anyone.
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And I think open border immigration is a core part of their thoughts about who they are.
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And I think I know who's going to win this by-election.
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We're going to see if we can find anyone who even knows they're in an election.
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We've already had a friendly hello from some Canadians who saw us and saw my Rebel News shirt
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And we were just talking to a lady about what's going on.
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And she's like, yeah, well, it's hard to get what's really happening.
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And we're like, yeah, yeah, it's the same for us.
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So we're watching all these non-mainstream media things.
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I'm flattered sure well that was a friendly welcome to Galway you know a lot of Irish folks
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watch Rebel News too because we tell the other side of the story I'm gonna see if we can find
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some voters I get the feeling that it's just a lovely afternoon and politics is the last thing
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on people's minds we'll see what we can do so we're from Canada we're here to do a story on
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the by-election have you voted today or do you plan to vote no I voted already do you think a
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A lot of people are paying attention to the by-election,
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or is it sort of a low turnout, low energy kind of thing?
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but I think in general with most Western democratic governments,
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the electorate tend to be pissed off with the government
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Oh, have you thought about who you're going to vote for?
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Oh, OK. No problem. We'll let you go. Thank you.
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Like, are you worried about housing or immigration?
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Housing, you know, the cost of living and, you know what I mean,
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hopefully one of them will do something about it, you know what I mean?
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What did you think of the recent fuel tax protests?
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Yeah, I thought that was kind of necessary, I suppose, in a sense,
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because I think the government was probably running away
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I think it's a privilege that a lot of the world doesn't have,
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and therefore I think it's our duty and a privilege to do it.
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went into local government and got elected as a councillor last year, I think.
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And so hopefully now she'll get a dalcy this year.
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I think there's a movement towards the far right, unfortunately.
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So every left voter needs to get out there and vote to swing things, unfortunately.
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we both work from home so we're not in the car too often but i mean it's noticeable effects
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everybody we do have a car so we're not immune to it really at the same time
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how are you i'm from uh we're from ontario what are you doing here just vacation nice yeah well
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it's nice to meet you thanks for saying hi was is there something on your mind immigration or
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fuel taxes or the cost of living what what are you concerned about in ireland or is everything
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going great immigration is that very bad and uh is the party you chose the democrats you mentioned
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are they uh skeptics on immigration will they do something about it trying to yeah are you
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political uh not really yeah trying to stay away from that kind of stuff well that's a good idea
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yeah if you had have you voted before i haven't never voted yeah well i mean maybe that's a sign
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things are going fair enough you don't have to care about politics who should i vote for
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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
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canadian where are you from i'm from manchester oh okay well then there's a good reason that
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neither of us are voting yeah exactly i'm answer from canada that's my friend lincoln and who's
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your little doggy this is bradley right on so you voted and i see it says who did you vote for so i
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voted for sheila garrity and tell me a little bit more about her i'm unfamiliar sheila garrity she
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is an independent candidate for galway west and she is a lecturer she was in the university of
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galway for many years and now she's up in i want to say ucd one of the dublin universities she
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people people will say she doesn't come from a political background but anybody who's worked in
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a third level institution knows that it's political life is political how we live our lives are
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political sheila's been very involved in that she's a great researcher she's empathetic she's kind
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she's compassionate she takes things on board and she supports people well she sounds amazing it
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Yeah, well, I only got to know her during the presidential campaign.
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She was co-convenor with myself for the Catherine Connolly.
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Like, I'm new into politics myself in the last two years.
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Well, what would you say the leading issues in Galway are?
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Are there problems in this city that need helping?
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It's run by a very efficient, inefficient bunch,
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and money that's been wasted would want to be rectified and sorted out.
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That's a universal story everywhere in the world.
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it sounds like you have some strong opinions on the people,
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is there an issue that's on your mind apart from the people
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The biggest issue that we have here in town, in Galway,
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is the lack of um housing for people like myself i'm sorry a pensioner yeah and i'm still paying
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rent you know because it's just impossible to buy a place or anything like that oh you see inflation
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yeah aggressive food food inflation and there's also um fuel prices are going up very difficult
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to get what do you think of the recent protests about fuel taxes i think a lot of it should be
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blamed on the trump administration but people don't see it that far i'm afraid they'd see it
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as a much more local issue that the government isn't putting in a few subsidies i got a tough
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question for you don't have to answer it if you don't want to how about the subject of mass
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immigration some folks don't like talking about that but other folks think we got to talk about
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Well, look, I think if people want to come into the country, they can.
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As long as they work and they pay taxes like everyone else, why not?
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but it should be the same kind of policy as any other country with immigration.
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If you can come into the country and you can pay your taxes and work,
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If not, well, then maybe there shouldn't be a place for you either.
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Now, are there any parties that you're worried about?
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I mean, the governing coalition, would you call it centre-left?
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The governing coalition would be centre-left, yeah.
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But I think the housing crisis in Ireland in particular is making them very unpopular.
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Nobody seems to be able to sort out the housing crisis.
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So by-elections are notorious for giving the thumbs up
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So we would expect a kind of a rebel kind of a vote at this stage.
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Some candidates have been talking about mass immigration,
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and they think that that's been a social cohesion problem.
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and we've got a lot of great engineers from all around the world.
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So I think it's unfortunate that it's such a topic of conversation at the minute.
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Definitely not something that would be on my mind at all now.
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And I think it's easier for people to blame that
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rather than the actual problems where it stems from,
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which is the fact that houses aren't being built in Ireland.
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That's a government problem needing to build more and supply more.
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What's the number one issue on your mind in this by-election,
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other than your personal connection to what sounds like a very hard-working candidate?
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You see, there isn't really a number one issue.
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What we have here in Ireland is we have a legacy of maybe poor decision-making over the years,
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we have a housing crisis we have a health care crisis this is what we've been hearing for years
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and nothing seems to be really getting done so what I'd love to see is no matter who goes in
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I want to see somebody who'll try and pull everything together for Galway West and go
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hang on a second there isn't a single issue everything's connected we need to start working
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with the communities and with the people to find out what's going on and help try and change things
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from the ground up. Has the issues of the fuel tax or immigration come up at all because we've
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heard those in other places. Is that a problem for you in Galway? Not me. No, I don't. Migrants
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don't bother me or anything like that. And the person I voted to isn't Irish originally.
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So I just said, I give it a try. I have no qualms about that at all. Some people say
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that that's in part a result of high immigration. There's so many people looking for housing.
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I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just saying it's a result.
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No, it's the fault of our own government, our own councils, I mean, for instance, Galway City Council,
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They haven't built any homes in the last 15 years, you know, for people.
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And there's just no place for people to go to get a house, to get a place, you know.
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Some people talk about immigration, but the main parties don't like to talk about it.
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I think in general it's been found that a reasonable amount of immigration
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creates economic wealth for virtually every country in the world,
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including America, including Canada, and the European community, yeah.
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Critics might say that opening the door to migrants is one reason
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that housing prices have gone up, because of supply and demand.
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I would absolutely disagree with that 100% the reason we don't have enough
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houses is because we're not building enough houses when I was growing up if
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you couldn't afford a house you were given a house by the state there was and
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then the state outsource that to private enterprise and there have been no
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public service houses being built in the last I don't know how many years so
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that's where the tragedy lies and I don't know how they can't fathom how
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they can't sort that out i i see you're wearing is that i think that's a keffiyeh is that right
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is that part of your political uh focus as well yeah absolutely i i don't like war i don't like
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conflict i really i would have thought we're a bit more enlightened a bit more knowledgeable
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as a society and to see such devastation being carried out across the world is heartbreaking
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so if by me wearing my my scarf helps bring awareness to that i will keep on wearing it
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until this ends and the same right across the world there shouldn't be people shouldn't be
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dying or people shouldn't be subjected to anything like that well it's a pleasure talking with you
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thanks for stopping to talk with me where are you guys from we're from toronto canada yeah
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and this is a little we have a little news station called rebel news so when we go down to cork we're
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in the rebel county this is my first time in galway yeah yeah well i'll tell you something
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like to rent a semi-detached house a three-bedroom semi-detached house and go away for a month is
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two and a half to three thousand euros it must be hard for young people to get a house yeah
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absolutely and also even for students it's a problem and what do you think about the recent
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fuel tax protest do you have any thoughts on that yeah um i'm a democrat at heart and i think if you
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You have a problem with the way the government is working there.
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We have elections and that's how you should deal with it.
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I would be totally against the use of innocent people in such a situation.
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People are worried because they don't have enough fuel for heating their houses.
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And a blockade down in the docks using threatening behaviour is no way to deal with this situation in my opinion.
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And I don't want to press you because I just wanted to hear your point of view.
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I mean, actually, can I throw a tough one at you?
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Some of the things you talked about, high prices and housing,
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some critics would say that some of that is driven by supply and demand.
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If you bring in an enormous number of migrants, including from Ukraine and from other parts,
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that supply and demand would drive up the price of housing.
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Yeah, that seems to be something that's put out there.
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I find something like that a very difficult thing to swallow, I suppose.
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If you take a walk around here, we have so many empty properties.
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We also have a lot of properties that are up for short-term lets.
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We have a lot of working immigrants who come to the country,
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economic immigrants who are coming to the country and who are helped propping up our education system
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our child care centre. There's also IPAS refugee
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applicants too right? There are yes but I don't think it's as high as
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people like to make it out to be and it's definitely not something that
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I've witnessed and I actually feel very sorry for people who have to go to an IPAS centre
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because it's not something that people want to do by choice. It's like going into emergency accommodation
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for any ordinary person. Those centres from
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from what i've been told from people who are living in them they're not a very nice place
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like you're crammed in you can't cook your own food there isn't a place to go out and play like
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i don't think they're coming over by choice to try and take advantage of something in part
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immigration does drive out housing because you have a lot of people that need a roof over their
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head yeah that's a contentious issue in ireland at the moment but you can't very well dump the
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ukrainians and you can't very well dump people that are escaping from the kind of hellish regimes
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in northern africa do you have to take some social responsibility yeah some have walked over
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the border from northern ireland and discarded their papers and i mean they got to the uk which
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is a hospitable place but they came into ireland i mean the uk is a safe place but maybe some
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people would say they were looking for a better deal for housing or benefits is that is that
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fear-mongering or is that given my own experience i used to be on social welfare uh access to those
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things is quite difficult it doesn't matter where you come from it really doesn't matter where you
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come from there's there's there's a lot of narrative around that and yeah i don't i don't
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agree fully with the sentiments like the irish have a big heart they do yeah and so did the
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Canadian. Well, you're friendly. Thank you. It's easy having those point of view. I recently read
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and I was talking to a professor and a scholar of Ireland the other day. Ireland is so wealthy.
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It's one of the wealthiest countries in the world on a GDP per capita basis, even though a lot of
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those are sort of artificial numbers because Google and Facebook and other American companies
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But it is true that this is a very wealthy country
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And when you've got so much easy money, free money,
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if there was a correlation between high housing prices
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And they either denied it, which I think is a repudiation of basic supply and demand economics,
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or they said, well, the problem is we haven't built enough houses.
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But wouldn't you then stop the mass immigration until you fix the housing problem?
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It would never in a million years, you know, would that thought occur to them that, okay, we need more housing for mass immigration.
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We're not building more housing for mass immigration.
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therefore keep the mass immigration going and just lament the lack of housing.
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No one would say well let's pause until we fix that. I don't know I love this
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town and I've only been here for half a day it seems like a very musical town
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a very cultural town there's a beautiful tourist area with many great bars and
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pubs and there's a folk festival that I absolutely wish I were here for because
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you know even meeting the buskers and chatting with them this is a great place
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and it's absolutely going to slam dunk it for the left-wing parties and that's
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Ireland in 2026 what can I say what a pleasure to be here and good luck Ireland