Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I condemn without reservation the behaviour and activities of people at that location last week. It is not the first time that malicious and false rumours have been spread about people seeking international protection. We have all heard those rumours. They have been deliberately spread, falsely and wrongly. That stands to be condemned. The Garda is investigating aspects of that, I understand, in respect of false rumours but also in terms of any attack on an individual. In respect of Dr. Al-Qadri, it is shocking and I condemn it without reservation. People came to help him, as the Deputy say. I read that and it illustrates that the vast majority of Irish people have no time for violence, criminal behaviour essentially - let us not call it anything else.

That is why I do not feel it is correct or proper to juxtapose that, which the Deputy kind of did in his presentation, with economic or political issues, or issues around wealth distribution. They are fair enough issues to raise any day in this House but to juxtapose them with the violence the Deputy correctly identified and condemned, I do not quite get that. I do not accept the juxtaposition either. There are legitimate arguments to be had about the enterprise model we have in this country, with strong social protection and strong social interventions. The State intervenes a lot in Ireland to protect people, whether in housing, health or social protection. We have intervened a lot in the last two years because of the cost-of-living increase.

Our economic model is a better model than the one the Deputy advocates. I respectfully put to him that people would be in a far worse condition if they were to follow the economic model that he follows, which is anti-private enterprise. The Deputy does not believe in private enterprise or the whole concept of entrepreneurship and people developing the economy. In our view that has resulted in about 2.7 million people now at work, which is a record high level of employment in Ireland. Three quarters of the working age population is now in employment, which is at an all-time high, with unemployment at 4.2%. We added 90,000 jobs alone in the last year and I was in a position to announce 100 jobs with Infineon Technologies yesterday. Many of those jobs are with companies that are providing high-quality jobs. In the public service, there has been a dramatic, exponential increase in employment across all of the services the State provides. We are focused on that from an economic perspective. It is about that balance with an enterprise model that has generated wealth in this country and enabled us to redistribute it, particularly to protect the most vulnerable.

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