Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to talk about this migration pact. I am totally opposed to this pact, as are most people in the country. In the council elections a few weeks ago, the biggest issue was immigration. The people do not the trust the Ministers with this pact. It was disingenuous of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to try to confuse the issue last night by saying we need migrant workers. Yes, we do, and none of us have anything against migrant workers coming here with the proper documentation and work visas. We have no problem with people who come here genuinely distressed. What people are against is people coming here on a plane from somewhere they had to have a passport and arriving here with no passport. They then go before the courts and are told they cannot stay here, but there are no ways or means to deport them.

The Minister, Deputy Foley, spoke about the Irish people who went abroad. I know about the Irish people who went abroad. My grandmother left Muckross in 1907. She had to be claimed by her brother, and he had to have accommodation and work for her. My aunt went out and had to be claimed by her uncle. She claimed the rest of them as they went, and they had to have jobs for each other. That was what happened there and the issue should not be confused. The Government is being unfair.

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said last night that we do not have any plan. The Government has no plan. It has proved it has no plan. One arm of the Government is giving out tents this evening, and tomorrow morning it will come along and pick them up and dump them. That is not a plan. If people are taken to court, they are told they will not get asylum, yet there is no one to deport them. The Government, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Greens are ramming this hurried Bill through the Chamber when the majority of our people are totally against this pact. Why do they not allow the people to have their say by having a referendum? Why can the Government bring in its own rules? Is there a promise of big jobs in Europe? It is not being truthful as the pact is not clearly defined.

The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, said that maybe 20,000 or 30,000 people could come. That 30,000 amounts to 600 per week. We do not have the staff or facilities to process these applications. I plead with every Deputy here, especially the backbenchers, to vote against this because in a few weeks they will all have to go back to the doors again and people are totally opposed to this pact.

It cannot be right that I have to come to this Chamber to ask for the same concessions for Irish people as are being afforded to Ukrainian refugees, who are getting social welfare, being housed in hotels and getting school transport at their request, with €800 being paid tax-free to landlords who rent houses to them. This cannot be done for Kerry people. Ukrainian refugees get medical cards and they are not even sick. There are 70 asylum seekers housed in the Holiday Inn beside a 90-year-old woman on the Muckross Road. Why have local people stopped walking the usual footpaths and walk in loops around Killarney? I know why, but the Government needs to find out. Next to Dublin, Kerry has the second highest number of refugees and asylum seekers, impacting on our medical service. We do not even have one extra GP in Killarney. Our social welfare services are stretched to capacity. Some 36% of our hotel beds are being used by refugees and asylum seekers, clearly reducing footfall to all the other hospitality.

No one here, there or anywhere can accuse me of being racist. For more than 20 years, I have helped the Bangladeshi community and many other migrants from other communities in different ways. The Government is only able to provide hotel beds and tents. We do not even have a homeless centre in Killarney. Anyone who becomes homeless has to go to Tralee with children, and they have no transport back to their schools in Killarney.

We need to protect our neutrality and sovereignty.

Too much blood was shed and different things had to happen to allow us to gain our independence, and we really appreciate the people. What the Government is doing here is morally, economically and politically wrong. We should be able to provide for our own rules and determine our own future, and not be led by Europe and von der Leyen and pander to them. This is totally unfair on the Irish people, and the backbenchers who vote for it will regret it at the doors.

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