Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for making time to come to the House. Political discourse, both here and abroad, is being degraded by a variety of groups and individuals who peddle messages of division and hatred that have no place in Irish culture. Several of the candidates in the recent elections ran campaigns based on messages of hate and fear that were designed to get attention and support for themselves, irrespective of the consequences of their message to individuals, the State or society. Indeed, since the elections, we have even seen a failed candidate who considers herself wiser than others, who came from the east, following a chemtrail in the sky and bearing a message of cold racism and slur, telling children from the midlands that there is no place for them at the inn because their skin is a different colour. Thankfully, the good people of Longford sent her back from whence where she came.

I ask the Minister of State to outline what is being done to review and strengthen the laws on hate crime, incitement and online hate speech. This problem is not unique to the Republic of Ireland. If one looks west, across the Atlantic, one will see a President who deliberately divided a nation for his own political purposes and who dismisses any criticism as fake news. Looking east across the Irish Sea, one can also see damage and division being created by individuals for their own political ends. North of the Border, Sinn Féin and the DUP are engaged in a discourse that is driven only by party-political agendas and interests. In the Republic, there are populists motivated by the desire for attention and electoral gain who will do or say anything to further their own self-interest. All of these people have a number of things in common. Their message is one of division, setting up one group against another on the basis of nationality, gender, sexuality, colour, religion, social class, political ideology or indeed any other perceived variant of otherness. They also all have simplistic answers and superficially appealing mantras including that someone else should pay, it is someone else's fault and that they bear no responsibility and so on. The other thing that these people have in common, whether they are right wing or left wing, is that they are not concerned about the interests of the people they supposedly represent. Their primary concern is to radicalise people behind their own cause or group or to draw attention or electoral support for themselves. Those of us in the middle must stand up to these extremists. We must counter their politics of division. Otherwise, as W.B. Yeats wrote:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.