Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to put it up to the Minister and to the entire Government that the problems we have seen over the past few days in Roscrea and beyond are not the fault of asylum seekers; they are the Government's fault. I am pointing the figure at the Government because I really mean this. I am so angry, as is everybody, about the scenes of women and their children being frightened and bullied, and harangued and harassed, as well as the scenes of violence that ensued from that and them having to witness it.

It is happening, not because they are a problem but because the Government is a problem and previous Governments were a problem precisely because the Government's housing policy and its lack of delivery on public services has led to the anger of ordinary people whipped up by the lies and viciousness of the far right; the Nazi supporters who want to blame refugees and people of colour. They have directed that against asylum seekers instead of directing it against the Government and its policies.

The reason I am doing this in such a vociferous way is that we have echoes of those Nazi supporters' lies in this Chamber. Those echoes, which come from Rural Independent Members and others across this House, which blame refugees for the problems that we have, actually make a difference to how people think. When people find that this is going on, and is echoed by Deputies and others in this House, and now councillors - from Mayo right down to Kerry, they are talking about not dealing with or talking to the Government about refugees - and they are in the Government parties, the Government should rein them in and not allow this happen. The Government should rein in its councillors and not allow them to pass motions that refuse to deal with the Department on the question of refugees. The sooner they get out of government, the better because, until and unless they do, we will have the complication of people blaming refugees instead of blaming the Government.

However, I want to put it up to other Deputies, such as Deputy Lowry, who boasts regularly about what he has achieved for north Tipperary. Why does the Deputy continually vote confidence in the Government and vote against a ban on evictions? By doing that, the Deputy is supporting those who are implementing the policies where migrants and asylum seekers are being scapegoated. It might sound like a bit of leap, but every time one refuses to deal with the housing crisis with a lack of public services, it adds fuel to the fire.

I do not care how many nice liberal Fine Gaelers get on "The Tonight Show" and sound tough and hard on it; the reality is that it is the Government's policies that are implementing the scapegoating of migrants. Deputies should not talk about us suffering from an invasion. The invasion we are suffering from is when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael opened up this country to vulture and real estate investment funds, which are buying up housing estates still, 85% of them, and are depriving ordinary teachers, nurses, doctors and people who provide services of the ability to put down roots in this country. All of that feeds into this migrant crisis and until we get rid of those policies, that is, of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and its mudguards in the Greens, we are not going to make the difference.

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