Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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-----have the same time as everybody else.

I welcome the Taoiseach and his officials to the committee and congratulate him on his recent elevation. I wish him and his officials the best of luck in future.

To take things up from where the last conversation ended, the Irish question, which has been referred to over many years, is definitely an issue that falls within the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. As was agreed and accepted at the time, this is important and must happen as fast as possible but as slow as necessary. If any attempt is made to coerce people, North or South, into any kind of regulated system, then there will be a reaction. That is the way we are and have always been. I advise that we work towards setting examples, as has been done by the Taoiseach's predecessors, and I know he will do so too. This approach would be intended to encourage people to recognise what can be gained and the benefits of the convergence of the two parts of this island. Any attempt to use coercion to achieve this outcome will receive a negative response, so we should recognise this fact.

I remember going home one night a couple of years ago and there were posters up on the western road out of this capital calling, in effect, for a poll on Northern Ireland now. The next morning, however, they were gone. There must have been a change in strategy somewhere along the line. Either the person who put up the posters had a change of strategy or the organisation he represented did. The situation, though, was that that was what happened. I can tell the committee members the spot and bring them to it. This is an important and sensitive issue and needs to be treated very seriously throughout the length and breadth of this country. If it is done in the way I have referred to, and the approach taken follows this fashion, I think it will be successful from everybody's point of view. This is what we need to strive for. The people involved in the Good Friday Agreement all said this at the time. They said this had to be worked at. This is a work in progress. It is not something we can walk away from and say it is all done now. We have a lot to do here.

I turn now to comment very quickly on the issue of the economy. It is a great success story from the point of view of this Government and previous ones in recent years, having succeeded in turning around what were numerous challenges. This applies to the Opposition as well. This country faced many challenges over the past ten years or so, none of which was expected. Following the financial crash, we also had the Covid crash. We had a series of issues that challenged the economy and everybody had their own opinions as to what should have been done, including whether to do nothing, to do like Britain, France or Germany or to do things the other countries were doing. I think we did the right thing in the circumstances.

All congratulations are due to the respective Governments that took those decisions in the interests of public health and safety, of the State and of the economy of the State, which is fundamental in any situation. That was a great success and nobody knew it was going to be so beforehand. It was addressing the unknown. We did not know what was around the corner. We did not know if hundreds of thousands of people were going to die, as did happen in other jurisdictions. It did not happen here. Fortunately, we were lucky. Some people did die and this is regretted. At least, though, the efforts by the State and the authorities here were in line with the challenge put to them at the time and the Governments are to be congratulated for that.

In relation to migration, this is another subject out there now, and very much so. A lot of misinformation and disinformation and much misleading information is being poured on top of the population from various sources, none of which has any authority, none of which is authenticated and none of which is recognisable. I have seen, as I am sure has the Taoiseach and everybody else around this table, messages aiming to terrorise and scare the population and create fear. This has been the case in my constituency, and in others. In Moville in County Donegal, for example, we have had a situation where proposed accommodation for immigrants was fire-bombed. Proposed accommodation was also fire-bombed in Rooskey in County Roscommon, on Achill Island in County Mayo and in parts of County Galway.

As well as that, in this city, and in other towns and villages throughout the country, there were attacks on buildings that were deemed to be sites for future accommodation for immigrants. Some people involved in this kind of campaign have organised themselves into what would appear to be a police force, ordering what is and is not acceptable. They are walking up to people and asking them questions like where they are from. If the answer is not in accordance with the wishes of the questioners, people are attacked. People have been attacked in this manner. Incredibly, this has happened in the environs of this city in very recent times. This is simply unacceptable. We can put whatever colour we like on this, but in a situation like this, it smacks of other regimes that prevailed across Europe in the last century.

We need to be absolutely clear in our minds that while, on the one hand, there may be, and there are, issues that must be dealt with in a more orderly fashion in relation to private accommodation and so on, regarding the people who have set themselves up as a police force and who burn properties on the basis that these are to house immigrants, this is not the law and it should not be allowed to prevail. We have all spoken about this in the past, but what is worrying is why it is continuing. What is the problem? Do we not recognise the law anymore?

We should know more about migration than anybody else because we emigrated from this country for centuries and we were not welcomed in all the places we went to. It was not so long ago. I was talking with people in the last couple of weeks who quite well remember this being the case, and not too far away, where there were notices on boarding houses to the effect that "Irish, Africans and dogs" were not accepted. This kind of thing prevailed then and people got away with it, but because they got away with it at the time does not mean it is right. It certainly is not right. Perhaps various spokespersons at different ends of the globe have allowed this type of attitude to fester and mature and become acceptable again. Making the country great, though, does not always mean making the society great.

I am concerned about the extent to which this has gone on and the extent to which it continues to go on. I draw attention to Ryevale House in my own constituency, for example, and the situation there in recent weeks. To be fair to the local people, they do not have objections. An element has emerged in recent times, however, who do have objections. The unfortunate thing about Ryevale House is that the accommodation is inadequate to provide for and meet the requirements of the numbers of people put into it. I believe it is necessary to ensure that when accommodation is made available, however it is made available, the owners benefitting from the situation should be responsible for security. In any event, someone must be responsible for security. The better-run places are those that have this security and ensure it is enforced at all times.

To be fair to the people in the vicinity of places like Ryevale House, they should be listened to with a view to finding out what the problem is. I know that the big problem in this context is that there are no proper toilet facilities and no proper facilities to accommodate the numbers of people being accommodated there now. As a result of this situation, the whole concept is diminished and demoralised. I therefore ask that special notice be taken of this aspect.

This is so there are no situations where people firebomb particular situations then disappear, and nothing ever happens afterwards. That is not the way things are supposed to happen. I wanted to mention that.

I will also mention the challenges ahead. We accept climate change is happening. It is always there. It is not the first climate change, however. We had climate change in the past and will have it in the future. I am around long enough to remember the end of the forties and the fifties, during which there were only two good years. There were two years when it did not rain all year long. The years from 1949 to 1951 were all years you could not stay out without an umbrella at any time. The year 1952 was a good one - I remember it well as I got badly sunburned that year - but 1953 was appalling and 1954 was worse. The year 1955 was a good one, 1956 was again appalling, 1957 was bad and, the Chairman will be glad to know, that in 1958 the fledgling combine harvesters were left in the field and had to be towed out the following spring. That is not all. I could go on for another 20 years if necessary, but I will not. I can assure you-----