Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to respond by grouping. Many similar remarks have been made and there were not too many questions. I concluded my opening remarks by saying that intimidation, violence and acts of arson or incitement are not a legitimate form of protest and those responsible must be held accountable. While we disagree on plenty in this Chamber, we have all condemned these acts and are all clear this is not a legitimate form of protest.

I agree with colleagues that the vast majority of people across the country have been extremely welcoming to those fleeing war, persecution or starvation, irrespective or where they are coming from. Unfortunately, the world is a different place from what it was a few years ago. There are millions of people on the move because of conflict, including wars, we are not even aware of. As people, we automatically want to respond, provide shelter and support people. We see that in communities coming together and people coming together not in protest but in responding to the needs of those seeking international protection and putting in place welcoming committees. No group should ever be afraid to say that is what they are doing.

However, we have a challenge on our hands. Deputy O'Callaghan said we have in a short time gone from 3,000 to 4,000 people coming to this island seeking international protection to more than 100,000 in the past two years. Whether we like it or not, that has placed huge pressure on our accommodation system and our overall immigration system. With my colleagues, we are doing everything we can to respond to it.

Whether Deputy Ó Ríordáin likes it, the fact that people are asking questions about the immigration system now is because we have an increase in the number of people coming here and it is my role and responsibility to respond to those questions in the clearest and most coherent factual way.

We need to make sure we invest in our immigration system. If I had not done that over the past two years, I am sure the questions would be about why we had not done more. We have almost doubled the number of staff dealing with immigration queries. We have invested tens of millions of euro in our IT systems, moving many of our application processes online. We have advanced accelerated processes, in particular for safe countries. Obviously, we need to make sure that we have the capacity to deal with those applications in a fast way. I have no doubt that I will review those countries in the near future and more may be added. It is not just safe countries that are in the accelerated process; returns are now in it.

We will build up that system and structure because the migration pact I will recommend and firmly believe we as a country should join means that every person will be in a much quicker application process. Anybody who applies, irrespective of whether they are from a safe country, will move into a much quicker scenario whereby they will receive their first instance decision much more quickly than they do now and will be able to go through an appeal system much more quickly. We will have a more effective returns policy. At the moment, Dublin does not work but there will be a better system in place whereby in the case of person who has international protection from another country and seeks it in this country, the initial country will have no option but to accept the person back. That is not the case now. A lot of work has been done over the past number of years to deal not just with the increase in the number of people coming here but to make sure that we are prepared and ready when we sign up the immigration pact, which will be better co-ordinated and have better co-operation. I believe it is a system that will be fair and firm to those who need our help.

We are also making sure that those who are responsible for these crimes are held accountable. That is why so much of my contribution focused on An Garda Síochána. We need to move away from the fact that this is not legitimate protest. These are crimes committed by criminals. Anybody who aids or abets those crimes or withholds information is partly responsible. The only way we can respond is through the law and making sure gardaí have the resources and ability to be able to deal with these crimes.

That is why I am doing everything I can to make sure we have as many gardaí as possible. That is why we are doing everything to encourage more people into An Garda Síochána and retain the numbers we have. That is why we are investing in technology for gardaí and will have body cameras on gardaí this year. That is why we are investing in CCTV and all of the other types of technology that gardaí need to be able to do their job as effectively as possible.

One of the challenges gardaí have is where there is no CCTV, witness who has come forward or other evidence normally needed to prosecute these crimes. It is all circumstantial. Investigations take time. The Garda Commissioner has my full commitment that gardaí will have whatever resources they need to respond to these. Unfortunately, this is not quick work. The fact that we have arrests and there is progress is something I hope people take into account. I hope they acknowledge the work gardaí are doing. Any suggestion that gardaí have not responded effectively simply because something involves international protection applicants is something I would absolutely reject it out of hand.

A lot of work is under way. We have spoken about much of that today. We talked about the steps that are being taken to try to move towards the new migration pact. There are also discussions taking place at European level to determine what we do next with our friends, those who have come from Ukraine, as the temporary protection directive comes to an end. We need to discuss how we transition into something different and support those who want to go home, if that is even possible as the war in Ukraine continues. How do we transition into another type of arrangement for those people? That work is under way.

In response to Deputy Connolly, the temporary protection directive was always going to be different from that pertaining to those seeking international protection because we essentially agreed that those coming from Ukraine would be treated the same as European citizens. That is inherently different from those who come here to seek international protection. We wanted to provide protection, but it was agreed that it would be done in a way that treat people as European citizens. Whether that is right or wrong, that is the legal parameter within which we had to work. Obviously, we want to make sure that everybody, irrespective of where they come from, gets the protection and support they need.

Deputies spoke about communication and language. We all have a role to play. Deputies spoke about creating a fertile breeding ground while, at the same time, Deputy Carthy spoke about the need for people who are angry to divert their anger towards the Government. In the same slot, Deputy Daly mentioned Deputy Kenny who had experienced his own difficulties. Many Members have experienced acts of aggression towards them and I would not wish that on anybody in the House. It is really important, when we are talking about communication, that we do not add to the challenges in this House by telling people on the outside to divert all of their anger towards Government Deputies. That is not what we should be doing here. The only people are responsible for the vitriol, arson attacks and crimes are those who are committing them, not anybody in the House. It is very dangerous language to use.

Deputy Daly referred to online content, and I agree with his remarks. The spread of misinformation or disinformation and, on top of that, the use of artificial intelligence to spread misinformation is frightening. It is something we were recently updated on by Europol. The ability for any individual to use technology to mimic another person and pretend to be another individual and spread disinformation is frightening. It is accessible to absolutely everybody. That is why I believe gardaí should not work with an analogue system. They should have all of the digital tools available to them to be able to counter this type of technology and the way in which it is being used by those who wish to sow division, create fear and disrupt democracy. This is not an issue that we are grappling with our own; this is a challenge that every democracy across the world is dealing with. We are doing a huge amount of work to try to counter it.

Coimisiún na Meán was established in recent years and its sole focus is to take on social media companies where hateful or harmful information is being spread. There has been investment in technical bureaus in An Garda Síochána, whose sole focus is to make sure that they can investigate these types of crimes. Every type of opt-in that is available to us in recent years to better integrate with Europol and Interpol to counteract this type of disinformation is being taken up. A lot of work is being done, but I come back to the fact that we each have a role to play in making sure we are responsible in how we communicate and get this information out to people.

There is often criticism around how gardaí police protests. Not one Deputy suggested that we should not have peaceful protests or allow people to protest in a peaceful way. A challenge comes with that. When people are protesting peacefully, gardaí have to manage the situation as they see it. If the situation escalates, they escalate their response. We saw that in recent times.

Where people are protesting peacefully, it is often the case that this is infiltrated by those who have more sinister objectives. They also do not cross the line but get into a community and manage to sow fear and concern. That is exactly what I spoke about on Tipperary radio recently. To correct Deputy McGrath's suggestion that I had in any way been critical of women who have genuine concerns, what I said was that there was an attempt to instil fear in the community. There was attempt by some to link crime with migrants and say there is an increase in crime where there is an increase in migration. That is simply not the case. We should all push back on that. That is what I stated in that regard.

More broadly, we are all of the same view. We utterly condemn the acts of arson and violence that are being committed by a small number of people. Gardaí have my full and absolute support in respect of anything that they need to ensure that those who are accountable are held responsible. If anybody has any information on any of the attacks, not just in recent months but over the past number of years, I encourage them to come forward to the Garda with that information.

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