Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with Senator Hoey's words. It was quite upsetting to see what happened in East Wall over the weekend because you come from a community, you have a certain algorithm on your social media and you see that it is people you care about and people you love who are sharing some of those sentiments.It can be difficult to step into those conversations with people you care about while also having some sort of understanding as to what may have led to the position whereby they are sharing that stuff online or joining in with the mob. We must try to come at this with a certain analysis or insight that allows for a lack of defensiveness in order that we can have those conversations. Unfortunately, those who fall into the trap of the anti-immigrant narrative that is being fed to them often have very little power, agency and autonomy in their everyday lives. I sometimes wonder whether it is the human condition to seek power over other people. If we have little power, how can we exercise power and autonomy in our everyday lives? If somebody comes along and tells people they can exercise their power in this particular direction, they may do so because they do not feel they have the capacity to exercise that power upwards at the State, administrative decisions, bureaucracy, politics and the concentration of power. They look to where they can exercise the little power they have.

Unfortunately, we politicians sometimes buy into the same trap when people come to us saying immigrants were not vetted or there was no consultation. We then start saying there should be consultation. No, there should not be consultation. We should be empowering communities to be part of the humanitarian response. We should be empowering and resourcing communities to be the welcoming committees that are there and waiting for people to arrive. That is what the consultation should be. It is about being part of the process.

Where we come from, who we are and where we were born is not our fault but it is our responsibility. We cannot always control who we are, what we are fleeing, the conditions we have grown up in and whether we have housing and safety, but it is our responsibility. For me, for communities like mine and for the people of East Wall, we should take that responsibility in another direction and with the good heart I know we all have because we extend it our neighbours on a daily basis. We need to call out racist and anti-immigrant sentiment. If questions are being asked as to why people were not vetted, where the women and children are and why there was no consultation, we need to remind people this is anti-immigrant sentiment and that we do not vet our neighbours when they move in next door. We do not vet people when a new estate opens in our community and new residents move into it. It is not a normal thing to vet people in those situations.

We must stand up and say it when anti-immigrant sentiment is being expressed. We should not look to the mood of the electorate or whether the mob will vote for us to decide what we should or should not say. We must be strong and make sure the humanitarian response does not end by just letting people into the country.