Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was sickened to see, near North Wall, the term "Irish lives matter". Of course they do. Everybody's life matters, but people have been raped, murdered and slaughtered in Ukraine. People are saying there should be a cap on the number of them coming here. We had a cap on the number of Jewish refugees coming to Ireland during the Second World War. We stopped them from coming into the country. We must make sure such disgraceful, shameful historic events do not happen again. I feel very angry. People should not be able to stop access to the port tunnel willy-nilly. They are entitled to protest but they are not entitled to stop people from going home from work or to put people's lives at risk. More people are walking and cycling in the dark because they are not secure in using public transport.

Let us stand up to them and show we mean business. Let us do it, as Deputy Tóibín says, by consultation and working with people. Let us put an end to the dog-whistle xenophobia I am hearing now.

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