Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and wish the Minister who was previously here, Deputy O'Gorman, well in his leadership of the Green Party. I compliment and congratulate him for the work he has done over recent years in a really difficult brief. When he became Minister for children, he would not have expected the kinds of challenges he has faced to be foisted upon him. I am sure he has come under enormous stress and strain as a result of the vile and despicable approach that has been taken to his work by those who seek to undermine what he does and what he has to do on social media and, on occasion, in this House and the other House.

I was taken with what Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said in the other House yesterday. I compliment him for the way in which he challenged those outrageous people who seek to use social media platforms to undermine the work of politicians. We are all thick-skinned to a point but things can reach a certain level. The Minister knows full well what that is about. The other Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has been subjected to it. While Deputy Healy-Rae said he would not stand for it and encouraged every other politician not to stand for it either, I would ask Members of this House and the other House not to stand for it when they hear lies and mistruths perpetrated in these Houses. There are regular outbursts from Members elected to this House and the other House that are jumped upon by those outside who use social media to target Government Ministers. If we are to be true to what we believe in, there is a responsibility on all of us. I know Deputy Healy-Rae will hold others to account when he hears them utter absolute nonsense along the lines that we are being invaded or along the lines of the great reset theory. During that encounter yesterday, he sat beside Deputy Mattie McGrath.Deputy McGrath regularly talks about the great reset theory, as if this Government, including the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has somehow written leaflets in six or seven languages inviting migrants to this country. It is jumped upon by others if uttered in these Houses. It is used to troll, attack and undermine the work of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the rest of the Government.

There is an old story that some of the lads on the Independent benches will understand full well: what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We need to see a little reality brought to bear here, people standing up for honesty and decency and fundamentally protecting the democratic institutions this country needs and deserves. It would suit others to undermine our democratic institutions by using migration as a weapon.

Senator McDowell was right to identify that there is a difference between migrants and those seeking international protection. There is no point in binding the two together, but there is a real challenge associated with those seeking international protection. I do not want to hear one more person from the elected set saying, "You are bringing them in", or, "You are inviting them in." They get here by whatever means they can. The previous speaker rightly identified the housing challenges that exist, but these are challenges the Government has to try to deal with. It is not as if the Government is sending planes to some other country to bring the people here. They get here by whatever means they can and we have responsibilities to try to meet their needs while their applications are being processed. Yes, we can process their applications more quickly, and I am sure we will. The Minister for Justice will tell us the work she has been doing in this regard.

Notwithstanding that, there are migration flows and people seeking international protection. For sure, some seeking international protection may not be fleeing war, torture or inhumane conditions. They are trying to make a better life for themselves. They will be processed and refused in due course. It is a challenge while that is happening, including across Europe, much of it as a result of the war of aggression by Putin. It helps him to undermine the democratic institutions that have been built up in the European Union because he is putting democratically elected governments under pressure, which plays into his hands. In a small way, there is a small group of people who could not care less and they will run with it to try to pick away at the foundations of this State. That, in my view, is close to treason because it fails to recognise what Putin is doing to get back to an autocratic way of doing business. We now see it happening in Hungary and, to some extent, in the Czech Republic, and we see the rise of the far right in France and so many other areas. We have a responsibility to stand up for honesty and decency while at the same time trying to address the public's concern. There are people who are genuinely concerned about the increase in migration and we have to show resilience in that regard. We are doing so. In this regard, some of the changes to the Social Welfare Act, particularly insofar as it applies to Ukrainians, are helpful.

I was one of the first people to call for a debate on migration in this House. I wanted to use the opportunity to undermine some of the untruths and mistruths. I was challenged on the day by Senator Boylan, who is moving on to be an MEP, when I said that many politicians do not seek to raise the migration issue at all because they do not want to rock the boat. I was one of those for many years. Around election time, you just ignored those talking about migration. In fairness to Senator Boylan, she corrected me and said Sinn Féin had no problem discussing migration. Its position changed very quickly on it and it refused to support the migration and immigration pact, which, while it is not ideal or a panacea or silver bullet to solve everything, is a really good attempt by the members of the European Union to handle this in a way that works for everybody. There will still be issues and problems to be addressed domestically in member states on an ongoing basis, but trying to do it on our own is going nowhere. Britain saw this. One of the principal reasons for its exiting of the European Union was that it thought it would take back control. We saw the slogans implying it would have all this extra money to do the devil and all and take back control.

We regularly hear the charge that we have somehow lost our sovereignty, even though we have pooled and shared it, benefiting so much as a consequence. The British got their sovereignty back in this matter and came up with a policy on Rwanda. We saw how hopeless that policy was and how it was actually rejected by the British people when they came to realise that while they may be able to banish other human beings to Rwanda and elsewhere, their economy will falter if they do not remain part of the European club. They have a lot of soul-searching to do. I wish the new British Government well in that regard.

I compliment the Minister for Justice, who has done so much work on the migration pact. It has not been easy and I am sure she has been targeted in many ways, with little support from those who would seek to take a different policy position. It is a question of seeking to eliminate the untruths and mistruths that feed into the disinformation and misinformation that are circulated very aggressively on social media and that become part of the chants of those outside these Houses.

We should have a regular rolling debate in this House to update people and help to undermine the mistruths that exist, including notions about the consequences of 500 or 1,000 single men arriving in an area. While that language might be correct, it is a dog whistle to the notion that the individuals are invaders. Phrases such as "military age" and "fighting age" are often tagged on and it is said the men are here to overthrow Irish culture, the Irish people, etc. In some instances, they are running from war and persecution and some of them are here to make a better life. I encounter people who challenge me with the question, "Where are the women and children?" Not too many women and children made it to the United States either when Irish people travelled. The men went first because they had the best chance of surviving the boat journey. They sent money home and brought the women afterwards. Senator McDowell talked about the pathway across the desert and to travelling in a small boat that may not reach a shore. Quite simply, that is generally not a great way in which to bring a wife and children with you. If the fit men come first, there is a reason for it. They have a chance of surviving.

I do not recall the exact date some years ago when we saw a picture in the news of a child dead on the beach. It turned the hearts of so many to see that image because we could all understand it, yet that is now lost in the debate because we have seen such an increase in numbers. We have seen spikes and troughs before in the number seeking international protection and we have managed to find a way through it without the far right taking over the running of any of the countries in Europe.

I hope that when things settle in Ukraine, as they undoubtedly will, all countries will be better able to manage those seeking international protection and those seeking a better way of life. We need to consider this from several standpoints. We need a better migration process whereby those with skill sets, or maybe those who do not but who have the capacity to learn and be trained to meet the needs of our growing economy, can be accommodated.

I wish the Minister well in her efforts. I ask her to liaise with the Leader so that every quarter while this is a hot topic, we can have a discussion in the House to bring us up to date, challenge the untruths and mistruths and state the real truth.