Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

One of the problems with sitting here listening to others' contribution is that one's own speech can often go out the window.

I will start with basic truths because we are living in an age of extraordinary misinformation and the targets of that are often the people to whom we are referring today. For me and for the party I represent, it is important to be unashamedly pro-migration. My community in the north inner city has been, for the last 20 or 25 years since we got our first influx of new communities, enhanced and enriched by migration, both in our communities and in our families. I will defend to my death the right of others to exist, to flee war, terror, persecution and to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Given the circumstances of the last year, we find ourselves in an extraordinarily difficult position. The scale of the challenged demonstrates the need for us to go beyond ourselves, to be bigger, stronger, better and more welcoming, and to enrich ourselves by demonstrating the type of values that we associate with ourselves as Irish people.

Often, we are in a state of paralysis when we discuss the topic of integration because the stakes are so high. For me, we are discussing the very real life and lived experiences of people who have been the victims of war and have fled in search of sanctuary. When they arrive, they are tools of propaganda. They are being targeted once more in very different ways and by equally nefarious actors in some parts. It is important to be very considered in the words that we speak. It is also important to speak simple truths because they are being manipulated at the minute.

For me, migration is an absolutely inevitable part of the human condition. It happened long before us and it will happen long after us. Migration is inevitable but it is often messy at certain points, and we know that from our own experience. Looking back into our own history, we know that between 1845 and 1855, 1.5 million people fled from starvation in this country, and went to places like America and elsewhere. The consequences of that are still felt today when we remain one of only two countries in Europe that has a lower population now than in the 1850s, the other being the Vatican City. We know migration is messy, but we also know that we have to stand up and meet those challenges.

In his speech earlier, the Taoiseach referenced something that captured my attention. He said: "As Taoiseach, I believe that we should welcome and protect those who come to these shores legitimately, because it is the best way of honouring our own story." In a couple of weeks' time, the Taoiseach will go to Washington. While he is there, he will do what every Taoiseach before him has done, and seek the regularisation of the Irish community over there, who have been told by others that they are not there legitimately. When we speak of migration, oftentimes the situation is a lot more blurry than we can capture in simple statements. If we are recognising our own traditions and history we should appreciate that language such as legitimacy does not actually come into the human experience. I was thinking of that when I was thinking about people who come from countries that are on an ascension platform, who cannot come here through legitimate pathways because we simply do not have them at the moment. I am thinking of people coming here from parts of the Horn of Africa and elsewhere in Africa, who cannot come here through legitimate means because they cannot access the requisite paperwork and documents that they need to arrive in a way that we would consider to be legitimate. I am thinking about people fleeing Afghanistan who cannot access the legitimate documents because the Taliban has not allocated passports since 2021. It is an incredibly complex story that we need to meet with compassion and openness. We must meet hatred with facts and information.

To the end of last week, I believe 74,000 people have arrived on our shores in the last year. I do not, for a second, underestimate the challenge that has presented to the State, the Government and the communities in which they are placed. I also noted some of the statements being made by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on radio. A couple of days ago he said he had sent out a call to every Department to provide an updated list of buildings that could be used for accommodation and resources at their disposal to meet this challenge, and he received one response from the Department of Defence and nobody else. I suppose that as we had a conveyor belt of-----

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