Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Refugees are welcome. They are welcome in Tallaght, where I live, in the constituency of Dublin South-West, which I represent, and in Ireland. They are some of the more than 100 million displaced people throughout the world who are fleeing war, persecution and repression. Just as Irish people fleeing some of those things went abroad, along with some so-called economic migrants, we should be welcoming these people. I want to see a world without forced migration. I want the number of people forced to migrate to go down every year rather than going up. To be honest, that points to an eco-socialist challenge to the capitalist system. It points to challenging the imperialism that is fuelling conflict across the world, be it Russian or US imperialism, backing various dictators that are repressing their populations, destroying the planet and potentially creating hundreds of millions of climate refugees in the coming years.

It is wrong to blockade people who have fled war and are vulnerable from accessing their accommodation. The housing crisis is not down to refugees or asylum seekers. Those who spread the lie that asylum seekers are responsible for the housing crisis are helping the Government and the corporate landlords and developers it represents to avoid responsibility.

I have seen Members on the Government benches engage in that. They say it is very difficult to address the housing crisis because of the Ukrainians and so on. Let us be clear that we had a housing crisis before the invasion of Ukraine started. We have had a housing crisis for years and years. If all the asylum seekers and refugees left tomorrow, we would still have housing crisis. Why? It is because this Government has ruled not in the interests of ordinary people regardless of what colour their skin is or where they come from, but in the interests of corporate landlords and private developers. It has allowed rents to soar to unbelievable and unaffordable levels. It has consciously encouraged house prices to rise to unaffordable levels. It has refused to invest in building social and affordable housing. It has refused to deal with the scandal of vacant properties and developers sitting on 80,000 planning permissions. Those who blame refugees undermine what we need to do, which is to build a united movement against the Government, against Fianna Fáil, against Fine Gael, and against those who are benefiting from the housing crisis.

I want to make a point about the far right. Whenever one says anything about the far right, people will say. "There is no far right; they are just ordinary people." Of course the vast majority of people in this country are not far right. Even the vast majority of people who have concerns about asylum seekers coming into their communities are not far right. That is absolutely true. It is also very obvious that there is a far right. Contrary to what the Garda Commissioner said, while it is still very small, it is, unfortunately, a growing far right that has a very significant hand in some of the protests and some of what has been taking place. This week a pensioner in his 70s was hospitalised at a protest in Corofin. A couple of weeks ago, the tents of asylum seekers were burned down in Sandwith Street in Dublin.

Wherever one goes, in very many of these blockades one sees the hand of the far right behind them. We must speak honestly about what is taking place. The far right likes to betray itself as some sort of anti-establishment voice, but is that the truth? The far right activists are opposed to the reinstatement of the eviction ban. They are opposed to the right to housing. They spend more of their time not attacking the Government but attacking the Opposition, attacking Sinn Féin, and attacking People Before Profit. Who are these people? They are the likes of the National Party and Justin Barrett, who recently quoted Hitler on telegram. Can anyone tell me that quoting Hitler is not far right? They are the likes of Hermann Kelly, a former press officer for Nigel Farage, who was formerly the acting editor of The Irish Catholic. They are the likes of Philip Dwyer, who was kicked out of the National Party, and his new party Ireland First. They want to bring us back to a society dominated by the Catholic Church, with no rights for trade unions, no rights for LGBTQ people, and where ordinary people are repressed. They also have a lot of connections to the British far right, which is ironic considering they are waving the Tricolour.

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