Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is not the answer. We need to have an honest conversation and we must tackle the far right.

One of the questions on last night's episode of "The Late Debate" asked how the Garda failed. That failure was the result of the policies and structures we have in place. The Garda did not know what it was doing that night. It was a shock and we were not prepared for it. What would we do if, God forbid, this were to happen again next month? Do we have enough gardaí in place? Have enough gardaí been trained for it? We are living in Ireland in 2023 and what happened last Thursday could have happened anywhere, at any of our children's crèches. Some people took that for granted. I have heard one or two Senators calling those who were involved drug addicts and referring to their actions as thuggery. There were so many people, along with these far-right activists or whatever they like to call themselves. I like to say of them that the bigger the donkey, the heavier the load. They are well organised and we must consider that, going forward, and have serious conversations.

I have a different opinion to some of my colleagues, in that I think we need hate crime legislation as soon as possible. I know a hell of a lot of emails came in because I received some too. There were thousands of those mails before what happened in Gaza. We have been putting that legislation on the back burner and we cannot do that because what will keep minorities safe is people knowing it is unacceptable to attack a person because of their identity. Take, for example, a woman's hijab being pulled from her. If someone pulled the clothes from a white Irish woman on the streets, I guarantee there would be protests up and down this country, saying it is not right. However, it is all right to pull a Muslim woman's hijab from her face in this country.

I do not mean to sound in any way disrespectful or anything, but what we are now doing and a part of is a class war. It is us against them. As Senator Ruane said in the House yesterday, people with nothing are fighting for nothing. We need to consider how we keep migrants, refugees and people from minority groups. As a member of the Traveller community, I know exactly what it is like to live in fear and to be hated in this country. To go back to what Senator Ruane said, it is people with nothing fighting for nothing. That does not mean that Senator Ruane and I are defending this and saying that people should be out on the streets and fighting. Our thoughts are far from that. However, we need to tackle the far right in this country and we need to do it collectively.