Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last Saturday I was privileged to stand with county councillors and people from local communities such as Ballyfermot, Bluebell, Clondalkin and Drimnagh, people from working class communities. I do not like saying the far right or far left and all this crap. If you give a damn about people, you give a damn about people, end of story.

However, to see the number of people who showed up on Saturday was heartwarming for me. While we focus on racists and hatred in this House, there are only approximately 20 people in all of Leinster House, including the two Houses, who really care about those on the margins of Irish society. That is out of 220 people. It is a sad time to see the hate that is going on in our society. Yesterday on social media - I try not to look at these videos of hate - a man minding his own business walking down the street was stopped by a bully. If a member of the Traveller community did it, we would be called "knackers" and "scumbags" but it is okay for those who are bullies in our society. They are nothing more than bullies.

What we need to do is work with our local communities that are already on the margins of society. It is the job of all of us in the House to bring them back and make them realise that other human beings are not the problem. I keep bringing this up. It is the policies and legislation we have in place. People could say that we are part of the Government and it is not our fault, but is the fault of all of us. We need to be true to our communities. End of story.

To see the racism in this House, to see that Members of this House can stand up and speak so much hatred of immigrants, of people coming into the country. Shame on them. They do not know what it is like to be at the margins of society. Having a trans friend does not mean you will stand with trans people. Having a Traveller friend does not mean you will stand up with Travellers. It is not about saying in this House "I stand with". There is no right or wrong way to be a racist. There is no such thing as a nice racist. If you act to be racist, the "but" does not stop it. The "but" still makes the person feel rejected and hated.