Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I represent people on the Tipperary-Offaly border who work in the town of Roscrea. They are decent people who pay their taxes. The way they were treated and demonised in the national media was shameful. Not one bad person was up there that day. Everything was handled wrong. It was done to create the image that the people and the community were wrong and I condemn that. What was done to those people was very wrong. Those communities are concerned. Communities are entitled to ask questions. The mishandling of that incident was shocking but, of course, the RTÉ camera was there to capture it all and so it was choreographed to the to the greatest detail. I condemn that and call it out because people see it for what it was and it certainly backfired.

I want to also raise my serious concerns over the very unsustainable level of immigration in this country. I was dumbfounded by the gullible, naïve and reckless statements we heard from some of the hard-left TDs. They seem to think that there are no limits on what we can do. Of course, there are limits on what we can do as a country. We are only one small island and there is only so much we can do. It is wrong to continue to bring people in in droves and let them sleep on hotel floors. In June 2022, I was lectured to in this Chamber when as I expressed my concern to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien. Not alone do we have them on hotel floors, now we have them on streets and in tents because it has reached such a chaotic level.

What is happening is unfair. There is only so much we can do. It is ridiculous for the hard-left TDs to think it is perfectly fine to throw taxpayers' money around like confetti and act in such a reckless fashion by bringing in everybody from across the world wherever they might come from. We are not here for the purpose of letting asylum tourists in here. We are not here for that reason and I condemn that.

Why is the fingerprinting not being checked against a criminal database? I am concerned it is being checked against two databases that are not criminal databases. I am also concerned about our tourism industry being destroyed and the hotel beds gone out of the system. I have serious concerns and I will continue to raise them.

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