Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Leader will remember that last week in this Chamber a number of colleagues raised the issue of antisocial behaviour on our streets. A particular video was going around on social media showing a Deliveroo driver being attacked. In the aftermath of that, I was contacted by a number of people and I subsequently put out a call on social media for people to share their experiences with me. I have been not only disappointed and disgusted, but shocked and astounded by the volume of responses I received from people all over this country in cities and towns around the country. The responses have come from Irish people but mostly from non-Irish people. It fills me with shame that there are Irish people out there who think it is acceptable to behave in any way approaching what we have seen. The video we talked about last week is only one example. There have been hospitalisations as well as more minor attacks, but there have also been deaths arising from attacks. People have shared hundreds of examples with me, and I do not say that by way of exaggeration. One person said that a group of kids threw eggs at her and told her to get out of this country. Another person said that as a Chinese girl living in Dublin, she has to be prepared to be verbally harassed every time she goes out. She said people come up to her and try to make her uncomfortable. She said they make racist remarks. She said she does not feel safe going out by herself. She has been shouted at, followed and attacked twice in two years while living here. She was attacked by a group of teenagers when she was getting off the Luas. We cannot tolerate this kind of behaviour. We are asking foreign nationals to come to this country and share their skills, labour and time with our economy, if nothing else. Beyond that, they are our neighbours in humanity, if that is not putting the matter too tritely. It is unacceptable that this kind of behaviour would continue and it is time we put a stop to it. I do not know what the answer is but I ask that we have a debate on the issue and explore whether we need more resources, more legislative solutions or something else. We cannot allow this awful, disgusting and intolerable situation to continue. Something must be done to put a stop to it.