Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While I welcome an open and honest conversation in this House about immigration, I am deeply concerned about the need for balance on the matter and our use of language in this House. We need to keep in context the Irish spirit of céad míle fáilte, the history of this island nation, whereby we sent people to far reaches of the four corners of the world. There they set down roots, made families and became captains of industries and titans of politics. The wild geese went out with their hopes and dreams and clothes on their backs and created a global diaspora. That is important.

Notwithstanding that salient fact, the approach of this Government of offloading large numbers of vulnerable individuals into small rural and peripheral communities, which already had a deficit of services without putting in place additional resources to meet the complex needs of the new arrivals, has not been the right one. The Government has failed to communicate with communities on the ground. It has created a vacuum in which misinformation was able to thrive and expand and it has forced Opposition TDs like me, and even backbenchers, to do its bidding in telling communities at very short notice that they are about to have an explosion in population. These communities were already finding it hard to get a doctor's or a dentist's appointment, the basic primary care services. They are at the bottom of all the waiting lists and have been abandoned by this Government. To hell or to Connacht, Munster or anywhere outside of Dublin.

I do not blame the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, for this fiasco. I blame the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, for failing to adequately resource the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, to meaningfully engage with these communities. I reiterate my call publicly in the House for the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to meet with Shannon Chamber and discuss developments at Unit 153 in Shannon Business Park.

The public anger is palpable and has been for some time now. It is also in this House. The question has to be how the Government receives and treats vulnerable people.

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