Ms Niamh McDonald:

Deputy McAuliffe spoke about being specific about what politicians have said. I want to talk about the cycle we are in, what brings people to the point of speaking that way and how we can change the cycle. I have sent my statement to the committee. It can be sent by email to members.

There is a chill effect on the Government and the mainstream parties. There is an increase in hardline reactive policies and political narratives. We see some of that; “We need to house our own.” There is an issue about documents and unvetted immigrants, and politicians are repeating and reinforcing those frames. Then that is reinforced in mainstream media. Civil society repeats and reacts, giving it legitimacy so it starts to become common knowledge in society. That leads to increased exclusion, isolation, deprivation and desperation in the communities targeted, resulting in polarised communities, declining trust, increasing blame and reactive actions and a growth in hate and disinformation online, helped by big tech engagement and the business model. That is the cycle we are in.

Where do we need to be? We need brave political leadership - that is talking to committee members - progressive policies and State-led decision-making. We spoke about inequality and what people are suffering in our communities. Everybody is in our communities, including people from the trans community and those seeking asylum. Everybody is suffering in the communities, the big "we". Mainstream narrative taps into the majority who share progressive values. That will inoculate the hate. There is community-level solidarity, growing confidence and a decline in the hate narrative. There is increased trust in mainstream institutions, decline in the spread of misinformation, strong engagement, problem-solving and collaboration across all sectors. We need to change. We feel this would be easily identified.