Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Any and all forms of bigotry, racism, xenophobia, intimidation, abuse, physical or psychological attack are to be, and have been, roundly condemned. I take to my feet to condemn all of those actions without equivocation and to condemn the small minority of people who believe that it is not only acceptable but is in some way politically profitable for them to engage in this type of behaviour. It says something about political life in Ireland that the vast majority of those of us who put ourselves forward for leadership and election make no bones and state those realities very plainly. These are the values of the Irish people. All three Ministers who presented this evening have quite correctly condemned the so-called far right and its actions, and I support the Ministers 100% in that. Barricades are wrong. Blockades and picketing of accommodation of anyone, but particularly vulnerable people, is wrong, wrong and wrong again.

I have to put to the Minister, however, that what I did not see from any of the speeches was any acknowledgement of the clear things they have got wrong. I heard no acknowledgement of the real human need for communication, consultation, dialogue and information; not vetoes, but the need to demonstrate respect for and to trust communities.

In my experience, the vast majority of communities will, when given information and particularly in an emergency, rally hard to welcome, support, understand and help find solutions. I am alarmed that as basic a requirement as this has not yet, it seems, fully landed with the Government. The Government needs to talk to people. The Minister and I had this conversation six or seven months ago when there was a problem in East Wall. It is a diverse neighbourhood, as I told the Minister at the time, and one that has always welcomed newcomers, no matter their colour or creed. Still we seem to come back to the same thing again. We need to accept as political people that you have to talk to people and give them notice. A full welcome requires good notice, trust and respect.

We also have to resource our communities. I welcome the €50 million community recognition fund but it was announced five days ago. We are months and months into this. Who thought for a second that you could simply grow populations in neighbourhoods, villages and towns and not front-load community support and investment? That was wrong and needs to be acknowledged. I welcome that funding and give the Minister notice that more will be required, undoubtedly.

There has been a lack of recognition of the pressure on access to services. In some of the areas I represent, we have the lowest proportions of general practitioners in the State. People cannot see a doctor for love nor money. The newcomers must have access to medical care. We all want that, but how does that work when the system is already under so much pressure? How does Government not see that and deal with it?

I want to bring a reality check to this discussion. I think we are all of one mind and will call out any form of racism. It is not acceptable. Frankly, it is repulsive. However, we also need to understand that finger-pointing or ignoring communities that have been left behind and are also under pressure is not part of the mix of an Irish welcome. We need to listen, to hear, to meet, to share information and to give assurances; when the assurances are given, the Government needs to be as good as its word. In the Public Gallery are people from East Wall, members of the residents association. They have been looking to meet with the Minister, as he knows, for quite some time. I hope he will commit to meeting with them to discuss all these matters and find common cause and common solutions. That, very definitely, can be done.

See this speech in context