Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Over the past eight days, we have seen a number of attacks and attempted attacks on candidates and councillors since the posters went up. I think the most shocking incident was in the early hours of last Wednesday morning when Councillor Tania Doyle and her husband were violently attacked. It is a sheer miracle that they did not sustain life-changing injuries or worse. This is a councillor who has worked so hard to foster integration, tolerance and community participation in her community yet this happened.

There is a poison out there in many of our communities and it is right across the board. It is in households that have nothing and in households that have a lot. It is in disadvantaged households and communities and in very comfortable communities and it is manifesting in random racist and homophobic attacks, in the hatred being spewed online and more recently on our candidates.

All of us here have a responsibility to call out that poison in our communities because my very real fear is that it is not going to be kicks to the body or cuts to the head. Somebody is going to lose his or her life. Regarding this poison within our communities, we all need to reflect on our conduct in this House and the other House and how we carry ourselves because it is a poison being stirred by people in this Chamber talking about higher crime rates among migrants when that is a nonsense.We have a poison which is being stirred by some parties who give credence to the delusion that Ireland has no space for refugees seeking protection. There are many derelict and vacant buildings across this country which could be used but there is a lack of political will to do so. In particular - I do not want to get into personalising this - I am looking at Fianna Fáil today. To be honest, all of the talk about a shared island is a bit rich when we have TDs calling for gardaí at the Border. Thankfully, the Tánaiste dispelled that. More recently, the party's justice spokesperson said that Northern Ireland could be classified as a safe state. If we are serious about an all-island agenda and about a shared island, those comments do not feed into that.

Finally, on a much brighter note, I am thrilled to see that a 250-year lease has been agreed between the owners of Tolka Park and Dublin City Council. It is a victory for the grassroots supporters of Shelbourne Football Club and for football but it was nearly not the case. This is my last point. The reality is that we have a lack of support for soccer in this country. Tolka Park stadium nearly had to be sold to fund the development of Dalymount Park. Sense prevailed, thankfully, but we need to ensure that grassroots football and League of Ireland football is supported in this country.