Brendan Ryan (Labour)

That is what we would say if somebody else did it against any group other than poor people. If we did it against people because of their skin colour, sexual orientation or anything else, we would say it was a dreadful but, in effect, we are slipping through a form of apartheid — that is what Focus Ireland called it — which our country is beginning to accept. This is based on a belief that one puts the poor somewhere they are not visible.