Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We had no quorum here for the first hour of the debate this morning. That tells us everything about the debate. There was not one backbencher or other Minister to support the Minister and Minister of State. I lay the blame on the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Ryan. He has copped off some place else. We know where he is. There is not one backbencher. What is wrong? There is silence and suppression, including by the media, especially RTÉ, the people paid by the Government who will get €56 million after all the shenanigans and show trials of the pasta six months. That organisation with State-led broadcasting, my God, would not be as good under Stalin. Then we have the so-called freedom of the world. They can cause marches and riots themselves. Take Deputy Paul Murphy and the remark he made here about me last week. The Ceann Comhairle tried to stop him. He accused me. We are elected by the people of Tipperary, Kerry, Offaly, west Cork and Limerick. Deputy O'Donoghue is unable to be here due to medical reasons. We have a right to speak in the Chamber. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the officials for allowing us to speak and raise issues.

The Minister said there was a debate but there has not been a debate. I have been seeking a debate in the House on this issue for months, as the Ceann Comhairle can confirm. I have raised it at the Business Committee and through the proper channels. We were forced to use our own time because the Government refused to debate it. I was told as late as last Friday by the Government Chief Whip, Deputy Naughton, that it would require a multi-ministerial team to reply. That is why we could not have a debate. It was because we would need the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and all of the others. Where are they? They are hiding. They have dumped this on the Minister and Minister of State.

First they dumped it on the Red Cross, a wonderful organisation with a proud history. The late Carrie Acheson, who died lately, was chairperson of it for a long time. It does great work. It was not fit to handle this. That was when the Ukraine war broke out. Then it was dumped on the Department. There have been rows at Cabinet, as we all know. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is laughing and the Department of the Minister and Minister of State can deal with it. I will defend the Minister and the Minister of State on this. It has been proved today. Not one backbencher from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Green Party came in to assist them today.

There was nobody here from Deputy Boyd Barrett's party for the first hour. There was nobody here from the Social Democrats for the first hour. They were not reading our motion, whatever they were planning. They were planning to come in to see what vitriol or depth they could stoop to in order to insult democratically elected people here.

I wear the proud badge of Liam Lynch, a freedom fighter who was shot in the Knockmealdown Mountains fighting for the freedom we have in this country. I am a republican and I am proud of it. We are welcoming people in Ireland and we have been. Our missionaries, priests, sisters and laity have gone all over the world after many of the wars the Minister mentioned. We got a lecture from him about Bosnia. Obnoxious things happened there. I know all about it. I went there and I listened and saw it. I met the people. I saw what happened whereby stickers were put on doors at night for people to be taken away by neighbours and friends. I know what happened.

We hear what is going on in Israel and Gaza and it is obnoxious but we want to be one-sided here and prance around the streets and cause numerous protests. I have never organised a protest in my life. The so called hard left wants to describe us as far right. As said before, I delivered the Far Eastwhen I was a buachaill óg for my late mother. It was a missionary magazine to help our missionaries who were abroad trying to help in Africa and elsewhere.

These people would march every week if they could. Look at the cost to the State they are causing. Look what happened to a proud Labour Party woman, in fairness to her, the then Minister Joan Burton, out in Tallaght. I visited that place at the funeral of the partner of the former Minister, Katherine Zappone. I was horrified a few weeks afterwards to see the mob that was organised, arranged, brought and contrived. Petrol was poured on the fire by now Deputy Murphy. It was a shocking situation.

Nobody in our group incited violence against anybody or has taken anybody's character in vain in this House. As I said, the public will judge us in the elections. They will judge the hard left as well, and this neoliberalism, and the feigned compassion. It is shocking what is happening to the children who are dying, being slaughtered, out in Gaza. The very same people I referred to have no problem ushering in a savage abortion regime. The same people want to kill people in the womb, babies, children, up to their very date of birth. They have no problem with this. That is a twisted, obnoxious logic that my brain does not have the capability to understand. Most people do not either. They have all the rights for some people and no rights for others. It is the same with the fake, phoney electric cars. They will not look at the savage child slavery and the hundreds of thousands of children under the age of ten being killed every year. They close their eyes to that and say we want to be electric and we are going to be leaders in the world on this. The horror of the slave labour and the crime that goes on there.

I and our group are proud to put down this motion. I will not even refer to the amendment proposed by the Labour Party because its members did not read ours. They decided to send in their John Wayne-style representative, who loves the media, to try to reincarnate himself to attack us. The media will deal with him in his constituency.

I got many emails last week from people in Tallaght saying they never see Deputy Paul Murphy out doing anything for them there, only to cause that riot that day out there. The people are the final arbitrators. The Ceann Comhairle and the staff here are the final arbitrators of what language can be used and of respect in a calm and reasonable debate. Most people did engage in a calm and reasonable debate here today, those that came in, except for the hardliners, who have to be harder and harder. They are fighting for power. The Labour Party is fighting with the Social Democrats. Of course, the members of People Before Profit are fighting with themselves. They want to have nobody working and everything to collapse. They want a collapsed economy. They hate anything to do with work.

Many of us in the Rural Independent Group are employers. We employ people and still it is said we are anti-worker. My God, if these people looked in the mirror and saw the reality. We are out there, of the people, many of us businesspeople and teachers and everything, and we understand people as well as everyone else. The hard left has no monopoly on understanding and compassion in this House. It is shocking that this debate has been suppressed. The Government's consistent response has been to gaslight the issue, manipulate information, distort facts and deny reality to sow doubt and confusion. This tactic undermines public trust, obscures accountability and impedes constructive dialogue and democracy. It is anti-democratic, full stop. That is what is in our motion.

Most of the Deputies did not read the motion, as I said. It is a very well-intended motion. Look at the facts. The figures we quote are not mine or those of Deputies Danny Healy-Rae, Michael Healy-Rae, Michael Collins or Carol Nolan. These are IPAS figures supplied by the Department of Justice. It tells it all, as I said, when none of the backbenchers in the Government parties have commented, because they know what is going on the ground too. I am not saying I have a monopoly either. They are living on the ground. They know this is not tenable. They know there is absolutely no consultation until after the fact. Unfortunately, greed has come in. When people welcomed those from the war in Ukraine, they opened their houses but many of the offers of houses were never taken up. Now, it is over to some of the remnants of the Celtic tiger that are still hanging around, the developers. They see buildings, an opportunity and a cash cow. They do not care what kind of conditions they put people into.

It is not for the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, or the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, to deal with this issue. It is on the heads of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Government collectively to do so and to ensure, in the spirit of céad míle fáilte, that people who come here are welcomed, looked after, respected and integrated. So many thousands of people have come to work here in all sectors, including healthcare, and for me. We all understand that but the gaslighting, name-calling and suppression of debate and democracy are anti-democratic. It is not what Liam Lynch, Pádraig Pearse and those people fought for. When we see people like Deputy Paul Murphy running out with a communist flag around his neck, we know who they stand for. The Labour Party was founded in Clonmel 104 years ago. Its members could not even come to the town to celebrate the 100th anniversary. Is mór an trua é sin.

Shame on the Government, shame on you all, backbenchers included who did not enter this Chamber to deal with this problem and listen to the people. It is very important. We are the representatives of the people. We should listen to our electors, the people who do not vote at all and everybody else, migrants included, and try to get this sorted and have a proper-----

See this speech in context