Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Why did gardaí allow the organisers of anti-asylum seeker roadblocks in County Clare go onto buses, count the number of asylum seekers leaving the area and count the number of asylum seekers coming back into the area, and film vulnerable people without their permission? Why did gardaí fail to prevent the burning of the tents and possessions of asylum seekers at Sandwith Street, when it was so clearly foreseeable? I observe that there is quite a sharp contrast between the Garda Commissioner's strategy for policing far right protests, and the approach that was taken with water charge campaigners, more than 200 of whom were arrested. To be clear, I am not in favour of or calling for police repression but nor am I in favour of an approach that allows the rights of asylum seekers to be trampled on and which gives encouragement to the far right. What all of this shows is that the State cannot be relied on to tackle the far right and that what is needed more than anything is a mass anti-racist movement, rooted in every community, rooted in every workplace, active on the streets, and challenging the far right and its poisonous ideology.

See this speech in context