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

Yes. I am sharing my time with Deputy Barry.

The forces of hate and racism and even those who associate with outright fascism are on the rise in Europe. As important as Brexit is to this country, it pales into insignificance compared with the rather terrifying developments happening right across Europe and in the heart of the European Union. We are in a sort of happy bubble in this country in that, thankfully, no political party, at least represented in this Dáil, has sought to play the race card. For that reason, there is a sense of myopia about what is happening in Europe and it is quite terrifying. The Taoiseach should be very careful about his choice of words against that background. These developments are to be found not only in Europe but in the United States. The Taoiseach said he was misquoted about his comments in the United States and perhaps that is true, but it is very ill-judged to make any kind of common cause with Donald Trump given that he has been instrumental in encouraging these forces across Europe. They openly say that Trump has encouraged them, and these forces are on the march.

The fact that this guy Kurz from the Austrian Freedom Party, which is openly associated with and was set up by former Nazis, is now the President of the European Union, that the German political establishment is coming under pressure from the far right and has capitulated to that pressure in this anti-migrant narrative, and the fact that a hate monger and racist like Orbán in Hungary and Salvini in Italy are linked to the far right are frankly terrifying. Detention centres are being set up. There is talk of the wholesale transfer of desperate people fleeing conflicts, but in many cases the European Union or members of it have directly contributed to the disastrous conditions in the countries that have forced those people out of them, leaving 35,000 to die in the Mediterranean in recent years. What is going on is shocking.

It makes me think of the policies of appeasement and ignoring developments in the run-up to the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930s where people ignored what was going on and played footsie with these people. I did not know about the selfie the Taoiseach took with Kurz and, if that is true, it is shocking. These are seriously dangerous people. Lives are being lost and incredible misery and hardship are being imposed on desperate and vulnerable people. We need to make clear where we stand on that, that we will resolutely fight and resist these forces of hate and racism and challenge them. I refer to the upscaling of the EU budget for fortress Europe, for the European wall, multiplied by five, and for more external border controls to keep desperate people out.

It was very annoying to hear Deputy Micheál Martin saying, obviously with a sideswipe at the left, that people were not jumping up and down about the Russians in Syria. Some of us were. I did not notice Deputy Martin on the marches to the Russian embassy. We were there.

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