Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

I stand to speak on the statements on migration. There are many wonderful aspects to it. I would like to talk about the experience and enhancement of communities the length and breadth of the country, but there is also something we just cannot step away from at the moment. Things feel different. It feels like the racism has increased and like the fear in the communities who contact my office has started to become a lot more palpable. We are witnessing attacks on the street and the targeting of people because of the colour of their skin and the sound of their voices. As we talk about migration, we cannot step away from the fact that we are actually talking about people who have come here in search of safety and are living in genuine fear.

We barely had a far-right movement in this country only a few years ago; however, through the action or inaction of this Government and the one before it, it has been allowed to soar. I appreciate that this is not reflected at the ballot box or anything like that, but it is reflected in the movement we are seeing on the streets and in how it is mobilising and becoming better organised and how its actions have become a little more insidious. We cannot say we did not warn that this was happening. Community groups said it and activists came to our offices. We in opposition brought it to the Chamber and talked about it consistently. It seems different now, does it not? It seems like there is a foothold. The Minister was warned. When the Tánaiste decided last year to punch down and scapegoat migrants for the housing crisis, we warned the Government. Deputy Jim O’Callaghan, as the then Minister for Justice, spoke on national radio about the deportation of children and adults. We said to him even then that the manner in which it was done and the championing of it in the manner of a general coming back from war, as it was described at the time, reverberated beyond the message he was trying to send. It emboldens. It tells those same people who are trying to spread fear that they are winning, which makes them become more emboldened and more vigorous in their efforts.

When the Minister watered down the hate speech legislation, stripping it of its core protections, we warned that it would embolden those spreading hatred. We are now living with the consequences.

More than one in three hate attacks reported to the Garda last year was racially motivated. There were 264 racist incidents in a single year, up 24% since 2021. These are only the incidents that were reported. We know there is under-reporting. Those affected are people who are beaten in our streets and parents who watch their children being assaulted and told to go back to where they came from. Workers are abused on buses, and nurses finishing night shift are terrified of walking home. Experts have said plainly that racism is becoming more aggressive, more obvious and more brazen because people feel emboldened to engage in it. Who has emboldened them? It is a result of the choices made at every level. I am referring to a Government that has put political expediency over leadership, used the language of division instead of solidarity and decided that telling migrants to be gone is to be championed rather than tackling its own failures. These failures include the failure to implement the recommendations of the Catherine Day report. So often we talk about the IPAS centres, but where are the State-run reception centres? How often have we come into this Chamber over the past five years and called for these failures to be addressed?

The far right did not appear out of nowhere; it was given space to grow because of how others were scapegoated and how vulnerable and neglected communities have been left in the lurch for decades.

Instead of resourcing housing, healthcare and public services, a narrative was allowed to take hold that it is the migrant who is to blame, not the State. In many ways, that suited a State that was, for too long, indifferent to the fear of those same communities.

We need to get on top of what is becoming an increasing problem. People have already been attacked. That will only become increasingly worse.

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