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

Two weeks ago we had riots, incited by the far right, on our streets. Now we have migrants in our city who are afraid to go out for fear that they will be targeted by the far right.

What has been the response of the Rural Independent Group? During the original debate and then during the debate yesterday, all of them were at pains to emphasise that the riots that took place were nothing to do with the far right, whitewashing the role of the far right. Now we have opportunistically, disgustingly, an attempt to use the riots to press forward the idea that immigration and asylum seekers are a problem in our society, using the language of the far right, talking about unvetted single males and blaming them for the housing crisis. It is really disgusting stuff from the Deputies.

The Deputies like to cover this all up by saying they just want a reasonable debate about immigration and asking if they can have a reasonable debate. My answer to their "reasonable debate" is that immigration is not a problem. Immigration is not responsible for the housing crisis, contrary to what is in this motion. We had a historic housing crisis before Putin invaded Ukraine and before the increase in the number of asylum seekers. Immigration is not responsible for the healthcare crisis in this country. In fact, without immigration, the healthcare crisis would get much worse. Immigration is not responsible for crime. There is no evidence to link immigration or asylum-seeking to any increase in crime.

Why then do we have people in the Dáil, outside the Dáil and in the Seanad who are spreading misinformation, spreading untruths, and trying to blame immigrants, particularly asylum seekers, for things they are not responsible for? Whose interest does that serve? It serves the interests of those who are actually responsible for the crises we have in our society, to distract from their responsibility and to divide ordinary people. It is to have ordinary people not looking up at the rich and powerful in our society, and the Government that represents them, who are responsible for all the crises that people face, but instead looking down at other vulnerable people coming from other countries.

Take the example of the housing crisis referenced in the motion. Who is responsible for the housing crisis? The class of landlords, developers and speculators represented by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is responsible. They are putting those profits first. We have among the Deputies the biggest landlord in the Dáil, Michael Healy-Rae.

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