Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would be delighted if the Taoiseach answered my question but he answered a totally different question. The figures I quoted were by the person sitting two seats away from him - the Minister for Justice - only last week, yet the Taoiseach said the figures are dropping. In 2021, despite ongoing restrictions, 2,082 individuals arrived without travel ID in Dublin Airport. In 2022, 4,968 undocumented arrivals were allowed in and last year, 3,285 were allowed in. Are the figures quoted by the Minister for Justice dropping? The Taoiseach spoke about misinformation and disinformation. He should get a gold medal for disseminating disinformation, untruths and downright lies. We are not talking about anyone coming in through normal migration and people who applied through the system, which we all welcome. We are talking about people who have broken the law coming through Dublin Airport. That is only Dublin Airport; it does not include the ports. The Taoiseach has the audacity to try to demonise anyone who asks. The public is waiting for him. They see through his lies and untruths. The figures I quoted are from the Minister for Justice. They are not my figures or figures from any paper or anybody else but the Minister for Justice's figures.

Can we trust these figures at all? The Taoiseach stands up and says that the figures are all wrong and they are dropping, just as he says about the numbers on hospital trolleys and waiting lists. Will he get real? Will somebody pinch him so that he will wake up to the facts as to what is going on in the country? It is a naked blackguarding of our system. People are coming through without a shred of documentary evidence, which is a crime. We are prosecuting people for not having television licences or no flashlamps on their bikes and God knows, but people can just walk in here. Some are trafficked, which is horrific, but I believe the number is very few. Our country is just a sieve for them. It is a joke.

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