The Irish census has already indicated a growing foreign born population here (note table 5 on page 23). I have talked to people who worked for the census, and they tell me they are persuaded many of the foreign born are undercounted. The eastern Europeans, the Africans, the Asians who come here are from places where you really do not want the government to know about you, so they hid from the census. I am inclined to believe it, although I do not know quantitatively how significant it is. But I offer this anecdote.

The other night, my wife and I went out to dinner with another couple we know. Here is how the nationalities stacked up. We, an American born couple, got a French born babysitter for our Vietnamese born daughter to go out with a Polish born couple who left their two Polish born children with their Polish born au pair. We went to a Spanish restaurant, where the waitress was Polish and the only other group in the restaurant were English. We did not encounter one Irish born person that evening.