Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that and I do not want to make this about the situation in Ballinamore or anywhere else, but the Tánaiste did not address my main point, which was that using direction provision centres to accommodate asylum seekers is the policy of this Government yet around the country, people from other political parties and other community organisations are saying that we must be reasonable. People from the Tánaiste's party and other parties are demonising us for doing that. We have this situation everywhere. We need to recognise that Fortress Europe is not working and that we must have a legal pathway to deal with the situation. More than anything else, we have to take responsibility. It is outrageous that hate speech is becoming normalised and is being allowed to become normalised. It is becoming normalised. It is becoming acceptable for that to happen. Those of us who are victims of it and who get the text messages and all these threats will not stand down. We will stand firm but we need to know that the people who are putting those policies in place will also stand firm. This is the question the Tánaiste did not answer today. The people and I need to hear that from him.

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