Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let me say at the outset that I do not believe there is any excuse for racism of any form, whether it is directed towards people who are new arrivals to this country, people who have been here for a long time or people who were born here. People should be judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin, full stop, and I do not think any of us, coming from any perspective, whether it is centre, right or left, should try to politicise the issue of racism or try to gain from it in any way. I certainly hope the Deputy will not be doing that.

We are facing, in Europe and in Ireland, an unprecedented refugee crisis, the likes of which we have never seen in this country. In the past year or so, we have accepted and welcomed maybe 100,000 people to Ireland, an absolutely huge number of people, most from Ukraine but others who have come from other parts of the world. By and large, we have been able to provide them with accommodation, food, shelter, heat and light, access to education and healthcare and, in many cases, access to employment too. I know it has not been a perfect response, but I am proud of the societal response from Ireland as to what we have managed to do in the past year. No country in western Europe, on a per capitabasis, has accepted as many people from Ukraine as we have. Despite the enormous challenge, I believe we have done well it in the round and we should be willing to say that and to thank the Irish people and communities around the country, in particular, for the very warm welcome they have given people.

It is a real struggle to continue to find more accommodation and there is no point in being in any denial about that. If, two years ago, we had had amazing foresight, known Putin was going to invade Ukraine and we had built a city the size of Waterford with 20,000 houses and apartments for people who might come here, that place would be full by now. That is the scale of the numbers coming in. We have to try to manage that as best we can, and we will.

There are lots of people who will try to exploit the migrant crisis, for all sorts of reasons, on the far right and on the far left, and I will not be called out on that issue because I do not think it is right to conflate issues such as housing, healthcare, unemployment, crime, domestic violence or any of these things with migration. No matter what problem a country has, racists and the far right will blame that on migrants, and I think it is a mistake to conflate them. There are plenty of opportunities to have a go at the Government about any issue and I know the Deputy will take those opportunities, but he should not mix it up with an antiracism campaign. That is a mistake and I think he is playing into the hands of the far right in that regard.

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