Pointed Dáil exchanges as Opposition claims anti-migrant anger 'rooted in housing and healthcare crises'
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told a Dáil debate on the provision of services for refugees: 'We will turn nobody away'. Picture: Damien Storan
Unscrupulous individuals and groups are "preying on legitimate concerns and weaponising them to inspire fear and hatred" of migrants, the Taoiseach has told the Dáil.
Leo Varadkar, who was speaking during a session on the provision of services for refugees on Thursday, said that others are using the current challenges to "promote their party or even their ideology".
Mr Varadkar told the Dáil that more than 73,000 people from Ukraine have arrived in Ireland as beneficiaries of temporary protection, and none would be turned away.
"Our response as a State has been unprecedented in history," he said.
"Faced with a massive humanitarian crisis, we have accommodated 57,000 people in almost 700 locations. We have enrolled almost 15,000 Ukrainian pupils in our schools and issued 55,000 medical cards.
"More than 13,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection have found employment here and are helping our economy to grow and prosper.
"We will turn nobody away."
The statements, however, saw some pointed exchanges between TDs from the Government and those from parts of the Opposition.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin called on politicians to avoid doing anything "to inflame delicate situations", but said that the "populist approach of always presenting everything as being about the elite or the Government being responsible never brings anything positive, and can be dangerous at moments when some seek to exploit public concerns".
People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said that those who are protesting the housing of refugees were creating "a poison" which "cannot be allowed to seep into communities.
"It is absolutely insidious and must be resisted at all costs," she said.
Her colleague Richard Boyd Barrett put part of the blame for the current situation at the feet of the Government, saying that anger was rooted in the housing and healthcare crises.
"We might all say, and rightly so, we must reject racism, we must stand up to the poison of the far right, but it would make it a hell of a lot easier if this Government, for example, stopped allowing people to be evicted into homelessness, started to deal with the land speculators and the land hoarders who sit on vacant properties ... making a fortune out of the misery that other people are suffering, and if they stood up to the profiteering energy companies."
To that, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly responded that the pair had made "extraordinary accusations" against the Government.
"How about we all speak with one voice in calling out the xenophobia and racism and say that Ireland is doing everything it can," he said.
"While our response is imperfect, we are doing everything we can to welcome people into our country, provide the children with education and provide the men, women, and children with access to healthcare.
"More needs to be done, and the Government is bending the resources of the State to that."
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