Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Leader will know that some months ago I spoke about the far right when the fascists were outside the gates of Leinster House. I feel the need to raise the issue again this morning in the wake of what happened on Saturday. This is personal to me because when I grew up in London in the 1970s and was part of an Irish community, whenever we came out to march for the Birmingham Six or the Guildford Four, we had to face down those the far right and then there they were on Grafton Street last Saturday. I want to send out the clear message that we need to take this threat seriously because those on the far right are a growing threat to our democracy. I want to be very clear that the narrative relating to talking to technology companies to fix this issue is nonsense. That is a middle-class narrative and it does not address the issue at all. We need to have real conversations in our communities and challenge this false narrative that the far right is spreading. In that respect, I commend the work of my union, SIPTU, and the trade union Unite, which have been engaging with communities against racism, particularly in north London, along with representatives in my party, to challenge this ideology of hatred, prejudice and poison that is attempting to raise itself within our communities.

As someone who speaks at the Council of Europe and who had the privilege of working there, when one sees what happens in Europe and when one hears these voices objecting to human rights for migrants, one sees the very real dangers. I am asking for consistency in that respect, not just regarding the Fidesz party and Fine Gael's relationship with it but also in the context of the People's Party in Spain, which is in active coalitions with the Vox party, also in Spain. Those in Fine Gael cannot live with that. They cannot say that they are against fascism at home but that it is okay if they have parliamentary colleagues abroad who are involved in it. We need to be 100% clear that it is absolutely wrong for any politician to ever stand on the same side as fascism. It is incumbent on all of us to unite to defeat this threat and to stand for progressive politics and against prejudice and hate.