Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate. We are living at a time when unprecedented forces are conspiring to undermine the values on which our democratic community is built. These values are absolutely vital. They are critical to our society and we need to treasure them. They are the republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity, respect for every individual and his or her right to be treated fairly and in accordance with the law, and respect for international law. Unfortunately, there are now forces that are deeply hostile to the sorts of values we have built our community on.

There is no doubt that war in Europe, the onward march of climate destruction and the resulting surging numbers of displaced people are putting strain on the values that we hold so dearly. Unfortunately, as others have said, the intent of those who seek to use these forces to undermine our community are easily fuelled by a social media that thrives on outrage and alarming portrayals of people that bear no relationship to the truth. This, unfortunately, is the clickbait that attracts most attention from our social media; it is not the reasoned explanations from the Minister as to how the process of international protection works or the recent efforts of the Minister for children to provide accommodation for the people who need it.

Migration is genuinely testing the values of our community. There is no question but the surge of people coming to our country, as many Deputies know, represents a real challenge. It places strains on infrastructure and services. People can rightly say the Government response could be better, and I have no doubt that it could be. Nonetheless, it must also be said that the Government has found accommodation for almost 80,000 people fleeing war in Ukraine and 20,000 people seeking international protection from other, similar situations that they face. We have seen the support for many schools to accommodate them. We have seen support for communities to take them in. We have seen the generous response of communities. We have seen the reform of the processes used to ensure our system is fair but firm. While it is easy to come in here and say the Government could do better, there is no doubt that, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, they are in the ring, with their faces bloodied with the effort of trying to deliver a service in very difficult circumstances.

We politicians, who have been the beneficiaries of the struggles of those who went before us to ensure we have a community such as this, must help people to respond to this threat and not in the way in which we have seen many other European countries behave. We have seen in many countries the rise of parties that see migration as their meal ticket to winning power in communities that should not be so easily taken in. It really appals me to envisage what a society would come to if arson of buildings that could provide shelter for people being forced to leave war-torn areas were to be seen as part of some form of legitimate protest. It suggests a moral bankruptcy among the people who see arson in this light. Any one of those arson attacks could have ended in tragedy for people and sullied the name of Ireland for all to see.

These are people pursuing an approach that is not only ruthless but morally bankrupt. It is appalling to see 18 attacks and the Dublin riots that shook us to our core. We must see this as an opportunity for us, as a community, to step up and recognise that the society we have built so successfully has been built on international opportunity and international responsibility. We have enjoyed the opportunity part of that deal. We have seen employment grow from 1 million to 2.5 million and more. The other side of that coin is that we have to take responsibility. We cannot pick and choose those who come to our shores. We have to observe international law and provide legitimate UN processes to deal with people who seek refuge in our country. These two things go hand in hand. We cannot champion the success we have had and the new people we have attracted to this country, who are manning our health services and international businesses, and then say we will not also seek to support and give shelter to those who are in dire need.

It is important to say that Ireland is not receiving more people proportionately. Some suggest that Ireland is a soft touch, but in reality Ireland is receiving the same share of people seeking international protection as other countries. As the Minister stated recently, we are actually turning away a higher proportion than other countries. We have significantly improved the process by halving the time it takes to deal with applications, with applications from ten countries being dealt with within 65 days. We are making decisions, turning around applications and ensuring that the system is fair and firm.

We must now take a stand and seek to deploy the new confidence and creativity that Ireland has enjoyed in our new international phase, which has seen us take our place among the nations of the world, to find solutions to the challenges being thrown up. Distortion, intimidation and arson have no place in an Ireland that meets such challenges courageously.

See this speech in context