It will not assuage the “Ireland is a kip” brigade, but among several areas where this country excels is media literacy. Apparently.

We ranked 6th out of 41 countries – just behind Finland, Denmark, Norway, Estonia and Sweden – in the 2023 Media Literacy Index.

Unfortunately, none of this chimes with the new Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study showing how Irish adults vastly overestimate immigration and underestimate immigrants. For an issue routinely landing in the top three of national concerns in recent years, this is as serious as it gets.

Almost 40 arson attacks since 2018, rioters monstering our capital city, children hospitalised and traumatised, wealthy foreign activists being invited to set up new political parties with mass deportations in their imported ideology.

The country has a population-wide housing problem. The pressure on services is acute. No one has a monopoly on that view. Where it takes a far-right slant is when the blame is loaded on to immigrants by people who a) consider themselves to be educated and media literate; b) sabotage any effort to introduce fact and nuance; c) use hateful rhetoric, conspiracy theories and misinformation to exploit the fears of those who sincerely believe the country or their part of it is being over-run by strangers.

[ The big question: Is Ireland willing to accept lower economic growth to cut........

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