Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the parish priest of Our Lady of the Assumption in Ballyfermot flew the Pride flag in honour of the week that was in it, and of the celebrations that were due to happen this past weekend. The response he received was nothing short of appalling. He was subjected to aggressive, hostile, nasty messaging, both to his home and online. The online trolling was about the disgrace that it was and how he was going to burn in hell. That was the message he got time and again.

I commend the man on his courage, his compassion and his demonstration of his faith. He is certainly a noble individual. There was a rally at the weekend in support of him and of people in the community for whom Pride is so important. It was on behalf of all of us. It is important to say this is not reflective of the community of Ballyfermot, which is an inclusive and caring community. However, this is a disgrace. I want to highlight, and find some means by which to explore, the small cohort in society that bullies, harasses, says hateful things and continuously gets away with it.

I recently made a complaint to the Garda Síochána about two prominent individuals who are well known to everyone. They are former journalists. They spout racial hate speech all the time. I made a complaint to the Garda Síochána. I made my formal statement last Friday. It is not all right that a small cohort makes a large group of people feel unsafe or classifies any group of people as being undeserving of any aspiration of any job in our State. We need to have a debate in this House, exploring why we, as a group of people who are representative of the people of the country, do not stand up more to this small cohort.