Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 6 be taken and put on the Order Paper. This is a Labour Party Bill, the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2021, which bans the conversion of purpose-built student accommodation into tourist or short-term visitor lets.

I want to raise my concerns about the news that came out this morning of the students who did not get vaccinated at the Coombe hospital. Thirty-nine students were on standby to get vaccines but instead, vaccines were given to 16 relatives of staff. That means that medical students, who are working with women, people who are pregnant, maternity services and vulnerable people, were passed over for a Covid-19 vaccine on the night those vaccines were given to 16 family members of staff.Two days after his own children were vaccinated, the master of the Coombe told senior colleagues that the hospital was not in a position to vaccinate the students. I am sure everyone here was appalled to hear it. We do not want to keep digging over past things, but it was incredible that it was allowed to happen and that we had medical students who were passed over for getting a vaccine in favour of family members. I particularly commend the staff member who came out and told this story, but I am sure everyone will agree that this is appalling.

I also want to briefly reflect on the violence in Dublin over the weekend and the horrifying scenes on Grafton Street, which I am sure all Members saw online. It is important that we make no bones about it. The far right is mobilising in Ireland. The far right has been mobilising for quite some time in Ireland and it is easy to look the other way. They are certainly taking advantage of the disquiet and the unhappiness of people. There is a right breeding ground at present and that should be of great concern to anyone in this room. I am not willing to proffer too many excuses for how and why people become radicalised. We know all the reasons behind it. It happens and the question is, what are we going to do about it?

I suppose we need to look as well to our European counterparts. We need to look at who some of our European parties are sharing groupings with in Europe and what is happening in their own countries. We need to examine some of the far-right extremism that is happening across Europe and how we engage with those groups in Europe. I ask for that reflection again. It has come into this House previously around some of the European parties and who the groupings are shared with.

We need to get serious about this in Ireland. It will not go away. People are very angry and people are very upset. When people are very angry and upset, it is easy for people to pray on those vulnerable feelings. I put it to the Leader of the House that maybe we need to have - a debate is not the right word because it is not a debate - clear actions about what we are going to do and clear plans for deradicalisation programmes because that is where we are going now in Ireland.