Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not like anything about Donald Trump, I do not like anything about what he has said and I do not like anything he stands for, but he is the elected leader, soon to take office, of the United States, where there are tens of thousands of Irish people. By standing up and criticising him now, our Government puts those people who are at risk over there in much greater jeopardy than they are in already. We have a job to do, and that job is to be done by the mainstream political system. It has failed the people. Right across the world, mainstream politics has failed the people because it has not countered the populism of the Trumps of this world with empirical fact, which shoots their stories down into the gutter where they belong.

Mainstream politics has lost the people; the people have not lost mainstream politics. Donald Trump has been elected and, God help us, we must live with him for the next four years. Let us therefore not create a rocky road that we will regret. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth if that man decides to turn his anger on our citizens in the United States. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in this country if he decides to offer a 5% corporate tax rate and brings all his companies home or to put them under pressure to pull out of this country. The House should look around Ireland and consider the number of United States companies working in this country. Yes, Hitler was brought to power by a similar system. God help us, that is what democracy is about. We have four years of this man. Let us learn to live with him and work with him.