Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I was not about to criticise Senator Bacik or anybody. I merely intended to say that a certain leeway must be given to people in the House. To even imply that somebody might have a brass neck is not much of an insult. Some people in politics might even take it as a compliment.

There was much discussion yesterday about solidarity and Ireland's need to give witness. That was in the context of criticising other regimes about capital punishment, abortion and so on. A report about asylum seekers was published yesterday in The Irish Times which mentioned dozens of asylum seekers having difficulties with conditions in an accommodation centre in Sligo, with a child regularly getting a urinary tract infection and so on. There is a challenge in the way we deal with immigration but we must never lose sight of a fundamental principle that everybody in this country is entitled to respect for their human dignity and whatever systems we have in place to deal with people who are applying for asylum, we must always treat them with the dignity worthy of human beings. We must not lose sight of that, and it is an issue on which we should have a debate.