Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of Solidarity-People Before Profit, I wish to extend our great sympathies and condolences to the families, parents, sisters, brothers, relatives and friends of the 22 people who have been murdered in this callous, horrific and brutal way. I wish the very best to the other 59 people who were injured and I hope they make a full recovery. I understand that two of the young victims have been identified already: an eight year old girl, Saffie Roussos, and an 18 year old student, Georgina Callander. For their parents and families and for the families of the others whose lives have been extinguished by this brutal act, nothing will ever resolve the pain and suffering they have to endure today.

Any attack that deliberately targets children and families who are out simply having fun can be described as nothing other than barbaric and senseless and must be condemned utterly.

I also pay tribute to the people of Manchester, especially those who opened their homes last night to let in people fleeing the scene, the taxi drivers who drove people for free and those running the hotels that took people in and allowed them to stay the night. In the face of an horrific act like this, it is important to echo the sentiment of the Manchester Trades Union Council, which said that the people of Manchester - it applies equally to the people of the world - have to respond to horrific acts like this with solidarity and love. We should never allow ourselves to be caught up in the logic of hate that could carry out such an act.

It is a twisted logic that imagines the horrors visited on equally innocent people in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq, which we must also remember, can somehow justify doing similar things to innocent children and people in Manchester. We must stand against any action by state actors or terror groups that would target innocent children and people because they imagine it serves some sort of political cause - it never can.

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