Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus déanaim comhghairdeas leis as ucht a post nua.

Although migration has increased in recent years, it has always existed. The likelihood is that the level of people on the move in future will only grow, as has been mentioned, due to war and climate chaos. People move for a variety of reasons, including to escape war, conflict, oppression and poverty. They want to make a better life for themselves and their families. All of us want the same things. We want to earn enough to support our family, a secure home and, most importantly, a safe life.

Globally, forced displacement is at a record high. Almost half of the people who flee globally are children.Those who are forced to move are not anywhere near Ireland. They are in poor developing countries that have shouldered the brunt of forced displacement. Global instability, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and the horrendous genocide in Gaza, has contributed, and is continuing to contribute, to a substantial increase in the numbers seeking international protection. When the direct provision system was introduced in 2000, about 7,700 refugees sought protection in Ireland. Since then the numbers have more than doubled to 18,560 and the direct provision system, which the Government previously pledged to abolish, remains in place. Every week I get phone calls, as I am sure everyone else in this House does, from people trapped in homelessness and in the direct provision system, who have nowhere else to go. This includes families of four or five sharing a single room. Neither direct provision nor emergency homeless accommodation is ideal and each serves only to enrich the largest corporate providers of such accommodation. People living in Ireland deserve to be housed in decent conditions, whether they were born here or not or whether they came here through choice or circumstances.

Many communities throughout Ireland have been strong in the welcome and support they have provided for refugees but many of these communities, including those I represent in counties Sligo and Leitrim and south Donegal, have been the target of misinformation and disinformation. This has been worsened by a failure of State agencies to communicate properly with those communities through trusted individuals and organisations. The Minister of State mentioned community engagement officers. While they are very welcome, and the community engagement team in my constituency has a lot of contact with my own constituents, they need to be given additional powers and additional teeth so that they can advocate on behalf of people. They also need to be given more responsibility so that mediation can take place. Nobody has a veto on where anyone can live but local authorities, elected representatives and community representatives must be included and be given accurate information early on in the information-sharing process.

As was said earlier, local communities need to be made aware of any additional resources, funding and services that will be, and must be, put in place to support refugees and international protection applicants. We also need a strong and robust campaign to combat the fears, stereotypes, tropes and racism among the general public. We need to see a national counter-disinformation strategy, as per the programme for Government. We also need to consider who is benefiting from the division and discontent sown. Why are the social media and digital platforms allowing themselves to facilitate hate? They have literally become laboratories for hatred. Despite the knowledge the Government has about the harm done through social media platforms and their billionaire owners, there remains no proper regulation. The European Commission and the Commissioner, Michael McGrath, have an opportunity to use the forthcoming democracy shield legislation to force social media companies to dismantle their recommender systems that promote hate and disinformation. They are actively pushing this at people to grow their platforms and their obscene levels of wealth. Minority communities are relentlessly targeted online, including by anonymised individuals on so-called community pages and there are no consequences for those responsible. Facebook, TikTok and X are consequence-free zones for those who want to perpetrate racism and hate. At least 31 buildings, either reception centres or rumoured-to-be reception centres, have been burnt down by anti-immigration criminals in the last few years. How many of these have resulted in prosecution? All over the country, including in Sligo, we have heard about healthcare workers, nurses and doctors feeling that they are no longer welcome here. Our whole health and social care infrastructure is built upon the labour of immigrants and if they start to leave, where are we going to be?

Immigration has transformed this country in a really positive way. That people want to come here is a tremendous compliment to our society and our people. Our flag is a symbol of unity and peace and yet we see a tiny minority of people seeking to use it to sow fear, hatred and division. Our flag should fly over all our people equally. The housing crisis the Government continues to perpetrate is fuelling misdirected resentment towards immigrants and asylum seekers. The need of all people to have a safe, secure, warm place to call home should be the absolute priority of this Government but I am still convinced that the Government has not grasped the depth of this problem. Of course, it is important to have an open and frank discussion about how we establish and manage a transparent, rules-based, functioning and well regulated system. However, it is also important that we use careful, measured and responsible language ourselves, whether in this House, on social media or in the mainstream media. All across the western world we can see that anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise and we need to ensure that whatever we do in this House and in this country, we make the situation better for all people and not worse.