Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are some of us in this Chamber who could rightfully stand up and say "I told you so". I told the Government and the Minister's colleague, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in the Dáil 22 months ago that we were heading towards a totally unsustainable and chaotic social catastrophe, and here we are. I said it would bring about more human misery than we could possibly deal with as a small country. Did the Government listen? No, it did not. Were those of us who asked for reasonable measures such as impact assessments ridiculed and condemned as bigots and racists? Yes, we were.

Just look at where we are today. We have an immigration system and an immigrant homeless situation that are nothing short of spiralling social sabotage. This Government has no answers for one simple reason, it is because it does not ask the right questions and it does not listen. There is a huge disconnect. Our tourism industry is destroyed beyond repair, even though millions of euro were pumped into it. Towns like Drogheda and Roscrea now have no hotels. This is thanks to the Minister's reckless policy. Instead of asking how many we can take in or how many we can absorb when we are already confronted with a housing emergency, this Government was cheered on by the left. All of the Opposition Members who failed to stand up and ask the questions, apart from the Independents, are here today weeping crocodile tears and trying to appease the electorate. They never asked for the Government to stop or to assess the reckless approach that was adopted. Twenty-two months ago, I asked the Minister if he was saying that we welcome everybody in, the whole world in, only to leave them sleeping on hotel floors. It is now worse; they are sleeping on the streets. It is pointless talking about this unless the Government is going to put in place a robust immigration policy. We cannot continue with the reckless situation we have, with the hard left crying and adopting a very naive, gullible and reckless approach to our economy, society and to our safety because we have unvetted immigrants coming in.

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