Debate contribution: Illegal Immigration: Impact in Northern Ireland

Debate contribution by Mr Jonathan Buckley on 20 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Jonathan Buckley

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

20 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Illegal Immigration: Impact in Northern Ireland

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4963996

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Today, we debate an issue of our time: uncontrolled and illegal immigration. I moved the motion not just as a DUP representative but as a voice for the many people across our country who feel forgotten, overwhelmed and unheard. The statistics are stark, with close on one million people a year entering the UK. That does not even take into account the number who arrive illegally and un-vetted. I speak for the mother in Newtownards who rang her GP surgery over 100 times, hoping that her sick child could be seen, only to be told that the surgery is at capacity. I speak for the pensioner in Portadown who has been waiting on the housing list for three years and has watched as emergency accommodation has sprung up overnight just down the road. I speak for the teacher in north Belfast who tells me that she is teaching children in classes of 30 or more, trying to offer every child the attention that they deserve but feeling deflated by a system that is stretched well beyond its limits. I speak for the foreign national who came to these shores many years ago, worked hard, paid taxes and respected our culture and way of life, only to watch on in horror as hordes of young men descend on Britain's shores in rubber boats and into the open arms of a state benefit system that is paid for on the back of those people's hard work.

I will towards the end. That is what is at stake. Those are the people whom we represent, and the motion is about standing up for them. The motion is not borne out of ideology or sensationalism; it is firmly rooted in practical realities that our communities face every day. It is about protecting our public services, preserving community cohesion and ensuring that our infrastructure is not stretched far beyond its limits. Whilst many of us doubt his sincerity, the Prime Minister said:

"we risk becoming an island of strangers".

He may not believe his words, but I can assure the House that Members on these Benches certainly do. The motion is about a growing and deeply concerning failure to address illegal and uncontrolled immigration and its direct impact on the people of Northern Ireland.

I will, if I have time. First, we must note the context. The Prime Minister laid out plans to reduce legal immigration, yet, day by day, we still see and grapple with the realities that illegal immigration, enabled by consecutive weak Governments, continues to wreak on our communities. Conservative and, indeed, Labour Governments have failed to introduce a UK-wide enforcement strategy that is robust and fair. Day in, day out, our constituents — your constituents — see the consequences of those policy failures in our housing, our health service and our schools. A nation without borders is not a nation at all. Borders should never be chalk lines that fade with political lunacy; rather, they should be a source of security and certainty for a nation's citizens. To the unionist who feels let down by consecutive UK Governments: I hear you. To the nationalist or republican who feels that they are not being listened to by the parties for which they voted: I hear you. You have been failed by nationalist and republican politicians, of whom we must ask the question of where their loyalty lies if it is not with the working-class communities across this country, which feel the disproportionate burden of failed immigration policy. We can see just how out of touch parties such as Sinn Féin are. It is telling that we see such a small number of its members come to the Chamber to debate immigration, yet they filled it to talk about returning artefacts to museums. How embarrassing. Sinn Féin's policy of "Brits out, and everyone else in" is fooling absolutely nobody. Let us talk about the costs. According to the National Audit Office, the estimated cost of accommodating illegal immigrants in Northern Ireland has soared to £400 million, which is four times the original estimate. That is fiscal irresponsibility of epic proportions. Every pound that is overspent is a pound that does not go to our overstretched health trusts, GPs, services, crumbling infrastructure and underfunded schools. Members, that is not sustainable. The figure is no different across the UK in its entirety. The current figures estimate that the total spend by the Home Office over the past 10 years in the UK has been £15·3 billion of public money. Let us speak plainly about the pressures on public services. Across Northern Ireland, GP practices are overwhelmed; access to dental services is non-existent; parents struggle to find school places for their children; and small businesses are taxed to death to pay for a hopeless, regrettable, failed open border policy. We must ask ourselves this: why must we be expected to bear a burden that we were neither prepared for nor consulted on? Are parties such as Alliance, the SDLP and Sinn Féin really going to continue to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that it is not a problem? It is intellectually dishonest to pretend that those pressures have no link to a broken immigration system. When accommodation is oversubscribed and new arrivals are settled in communities without proper consultation, planning or resources, it creates strain. Those who are most affected are often the working-class communities, which have been forgotten by certain decision makers. As we all know, housing is at breaking point. There is now a dangerous and growing link between illegal immigration and the increased demand for temporary and overcrowded housing. We see a proliferation of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) across towns and cities in Northern Ireland. Those properties, which are often poorly regulated and insufficiently inspected, are rapidly altering the character of our communities, and the situation will only get worse. Beneath Keir Starmer's plan to stop the migrant hotels is a plan to incentivise certain landlords with five-year guaranteed rental deals at an increased rate from that of our own civilian population. That is what is happening, and if Members were to take a moment to consult with their communities, they would see that. You could not make it up. In just one street in my home town of Portadown, there are 24 HMOs. Just think about their impact on local residents and local communities. Councils —

— with limited powers — not at this stage — and outdated strategic planning policies simply do not reflect the scale of the problem that they represent. That is why the motion calls for the Infrastructure Minister to urgently review and amend that policy. Local authorities need to be equipped with planning policies that enable them to best meet the demands of their community. When illegal immigration is allowed to flourish and go unchallenged, it becomes harder, not easier, to make the case for those who truly need help. To those who oppose the motion, I ask this: what is your alternative? Are you going to continue to ignore the warning signs? Are you going to continue to let communities become unrecognisable? Should we continue to let public services collapse under the demand and expect taxpayers to foot the bill of spiralling costs beyond all expectations? This is not about scapegoating. It is about sensible, sustainable government, and it is time that we restored balance and gave our communities the representation that they truly need and are calling for.

1,251 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Qualifying Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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