Tom Clonan (Independent)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome this motion on migration and commend my colleagues in Fine Gael on bringing forward this very important debate. I particularly welcome the publication of a new migration and integration strategy, and I hope I have time at the end to elaborate on that a little. There are concerns expressed by some voices in Irish society, and Senator Byrne mentioned extremes on both sides. They talk about the indigenous aboriginal Irish and they talk about protecting our culture. Culture is not fixed but rather it evolves. It is a vibrant, living, emerging thing. If a culture is fixed, it is dead and it no longer exists. We should not have concerns and we should be confident as Irish people about our culture and how it has travelled globally. We can accommodate and accept all change as part of this ongoing flux and change in our culture.

On the question of the indigenous Irish or aboriginal Irish, who are we? Homo sapiens has been around for about 250 000 years with this software installed. Continental Europe has been inhabited by homo sapiens for about 50,000 years, but interestingly, Ireland has only been continuously inhabited for about 10,000 years, so who are we?The clue is in the name - Hibernia, the winter island. The Romans came - "Veni, vidi, vici; I came, I saw, I conquered." They came, they saw, they shivered. We can imagine the Italians arriving in Ireland, which was full of forests with the Irish looking out at them and they decided not to stay. So, who are the Irish? Genetic testing shows that we come from steppe herders from the Central Eurasian plain. Maybe we should be sent home. Some of us migrating from the Central Eurasian steppe became Visigoths and Ostrogoths in west and east Europe. Travelling across - I will bypass the Saxons - there were the Celts. We have the genetic imprint of our brothers and sisters from the Central Eurasian plain. We also have a strong genetic imprint from Galicia. They came up on the Gulf Stream and settled here. Who are the Irish? We are everybody. When a person goes to Stockholm, Oslo or Portugal, they see Irish faces - our own faces. I see my face in an African face or an Asian face. I see my face in every human being’s face. There is no other; we are all human beings. We all deserve to live where we choose, albeit within the framework of a sensible, humane and just system of evaluation. That is who we are.

There is a book called The Book of Invasions,which is a pseudohistory written to try to give some sort of a hagiography to Ireland. They talked about Fir Bolg and Tuatha Dé Danann. Fir Bolg means small men with a big belly. Therefore, genetically my Irishness is proven here. However, The Book of Invasionshas been discredited. Anybody who talks about the arrival of new Irish as an invasion or deluge is equally invalidated and discredited. Who are the people who are coming? There is Giovanni, who, like my mother used to lick her hand to smooth my hair, will not allow my son to leave the house unless his hair is fixed properly, and who fixes his t-shirt to make sure that he looks well. There is Maryam, Andresa, Camille, Camilla, Percivale - call me Percy - Nyara, Dzerzhinsky - call me Darren - Alici, Viktoria - call me Vicky - Fatima, Nana, Vileja, Oseweza - call me Suzy - and Tedeku - call me Teddy. Arjan and Bibbin are two beautiful young Indian men who look after my son's most intimate care needs. Arjan, the most beautiful young man one will see, told me that people are looking at him in a way that makes him feel frightened. There is Samuel, who, after the Dublin riots, will not go to O'Connell Street and the Ilac Centre where my son used to get a free frappuccino and a puppuccino for the dog. For shame. Fatima, Nana, Vileja, Oseweza, Tedeku, Arjan, Bibbin, Abiba. I asked Abiba why she picked Ireland. She said she ended up here because of a threat that was made to her life. She now teaches Spanish in a secondary school. She taught my daughter Spanish. There is Charity, Agata, the Carolines - Caroline T, Caroline Melissa and Caroline C - Ngwenya - call me Gwen - Ade, Fayomi - call me Femi - Guo Guan - call me Kenny - Dragan, and Mohammed - call me Mo. These are all undocumented, in many cases, young men and women of military service age who have looked after my family and are part of my family.

I welcome this debate because we have to come up with a humane and sensible mechanism for dealing with migration. If we do not and are afraid to discuss it and are censored or cancelled then we hand the discussion over to people who are not humane, who hide behind our Tricolour and dominate the discourse. We must take that high ground and show leadership in this House. We must reclaim our Tricolour - the gold, white and green of a thousand welcomes. Our flag is gold, white, green, black, yellow and brown, and pre-heart attack pink if someone looks at me. I welcome and commend this debate. We should be allowed to show leadership and have this debate without fear of censure or calumny and accusations of everything from racism to xenophobia.