Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming before the House to speak about this important topic.

The first thing I think about this s my memory of going to England and seeing the signs that read "No dogs, no blacks, no Irish". I do not know a single Irish person who did not find that deeply offensive and extremely racist. Unfortunately, because of the stuff on social media now, there are huge generalisations about migrants, which are actually as blatant and as wrong as that sign we had to put up with in the eighties and nineties in London. We should never forget that. As a nation, we have a long history of migration way back to the Famine. Then, in the eighties and nineties, we were the ones who went to America and we built London, and America, New York and Boston. Lest we forget, we have a huge history of migration. That is why we have been so welcoming to the migrants because overall, most people in this county have welcomed people with open arms. I remember going abroad to America and taking a job as a cleaning lady in a hospital. I was happy to do that job in America because the pay was good and I was looking for a better life and wanted to save money. I have a right to do that, as people have a right to come to countries across Europe looking for a better life. It is ironic sometimes because often the people who are the most racist and against migration are the biggest climate change deniers. At the end of the day, you see that most migration is caused through wars about fossil fuels and climate change because of drought and flooding. There is a real irony there in the minority of people who do not want migration and also have their heads in the sand when it comes to the over-dependence on fossil fuels and the change that climate change brings to people's lives. That is going to become more apparent as the years go. As climate change becomes more erratic and extreme, we will see huge increases in numbers. The very people who are climate change deniers and do not want to invest in sustainable energy and take it seriously are the same people who do not want migration.

Inward migration can be of huge benefit as well. We are at full employment in this country and every sector is crying out for more people to take on jobs such as in the building industry with all the tradesmen looking for more workers, and with apprenticeships and retrofitting. Of course, thanks to the Green Party there is huge demand for retrofitting and not half enough plumbers or electricians to make it happen. The hospitality industry cannot employ enough staff. We had an issue in County Clare last year where some buildings could only open four days a week because they did not have enough staff. Inward migration can bring big positives as well. I often meet migrants who are now busy working in my county and providing great services to people. I also refer to the healthcare industry. If we were to take all the migrants out of the healthcare industry, it would completely fall apart. It is not absolutely fabulous at the moment as it is. If all the migrants were taken out of the healthcare industry, where would we be left? We have a shortage of bus drivers in this country and need more. Let us be realistic here.

At the end of the day, there is a variety of people coming from all over the world. They are different ages and from different cultures or backgrounds. We cannot generalise but we see this every day on social media. It is scaremongering being spread by a few people but it gets people worried. I was told in one village that they were coming here to behead them, that all migrants are going to go around with Samurai swords and behead people. It is insane the stuff that people are starting to believe. We really have to check ourselves, check our scrolling through social media and check the feed to see what we believe in this day and age. Let us not forget that most average human beings, not just Irish people, are pretty normal, sane people who just want a better life and to be happy. Let us bear that in mind. The whole debate is skewed by lies, conspiracies and the violence of a handful of people. There always will be a few bad apples. We cannot say that everybody is perfect and I would not say that of the Irish either. Let us not expect complete perfection from everybody, bearing in mind that the average person comes here with no ill-will towards anybody. We should be proud of Ireland's response to these refugees. From the grassroots level up, thousands of people opened their homes and took in Ukrainians. I see welcome groups starting all over the country whenever international protection applicants come into a village or town as well. Unfortunately, in some circumstances we have seen discourse that they are all getting free houses, that they will never leave and all of this kind of stuff. Not a single migrant has got a free house. Yet people keep telling me they are getting free houses. We have to base our judgment of people on facts, as individuals.

We cannot deal with migration alone. That is why I welcome the EU pact because we cannot, this far west in Europe, expect that we will be able to manage everything on our own given the size of our country. We actually need to sign up to the EU pact and I know people are against that. I have looked into the whole thing and it would be madness for us not to be part of that. I welcome that we have now massively sped up processing times to enable people to work in this country, as opposed to waiting around for eight or nine years, and that those who have no right to seek asylum here will be processed much quicker as well. We are playing catch-up on how to deal with migration. I am not kidding myself here and things are far from perfect, but people, none more so than the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, have been working day and night since the beginning of the Ukrainian war to deal with these issues. Some might actually say that he is in fact the Minister who has been left dealing with migrants all by himself until very recently. We have many other Ministers who all have responsibilities with respect to these challenges. I commend the Minister today on trying to sort out all the problems for everybody pretty much in a silo from day one. I give credit for that because he is now getting all the blame when he has been working on it the hardest.

In Clare we have had thousands of migrants come to our county. They have come since the early 1990s. I remember starting a refugee support group in 1992 because people were coming off the planes at Shannon and getting stopped. We have had zero instances of rape, which I keep hearing about, domestic violence or break-ins. None of this is being done by migrants. It is our own people who are doing these things. It is easy to blame other people but we have to look at ourselves and take responsibility for what is happening in our country. Migrants have been coming into our county for 40 or 45 years and we have had no issues with them. The issues have been with the right-wing conspiracy theorists who are bringing good people along with them because they believe their lies. That is an important point I wanted to make today. We need to call a spade a spade. I remember there was a house that was rumoured to be housing migrants. It was never going to happen, it was just some video that was sent out. There was a big protest and a neighbour of mine, who is 75, was walking along the road he has walked for about 65 years and was asked to produce his identification by these right-wing people who were not from the area at all. He ended up in hospital. All of this was based on a rumour about a house that migrants were not coming to and because an old man dared to walk his road without identification. Let us pull back, slow down and take a breath.

. Of course it has been mad because thousands of people have come here. We had the Ukrainian war and we have huge numbers of IPAs. At the end of the day, most people are innately good. Let us not forget that, rather than buying into these vicious rumours that the right wing want to bring us all on board with. We have to be very careful about that, which was reflected in the way people voted in the local and European elections and in France recently, for the most part. Most people know that other people are okay and we have to do our best by these people. If they have come here for a better life, it is up to all of us to try to help them with that.