I said it to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste and will say it to the Minister of State: it is about time we had a citizens' convention on immigration and asylum policy that would include a lot of people who are now Irish citizens who came from elsewhere for a better life. We need to have this because the debate is not a zero-sum game in terms of extreme left to right ideology. It is about trying to see what best practice for us in Ireland is and for people who are coming to this country fleeing persecution. It is absolutely insane to decide, if someone is here after five years, that they do not have leave to remain and should leave this country after building up links. It is cruel and unjust. There should be an amnesty for people in that situation. Equally, as the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, said, if we are trying to get decisions made within six months, including appeals, that is a good thing because, right now, 80% of applications for asylum are turned down and only a third are granted on leave to appeal. A lot of economic migrants, all of whom are decent people, are abusing the asylum process and should not be permitted to do so. Meanwhile, we have people fleeing persecution who need to get accommodation. As others said, we should not conflate inaction on constructing housing with the immigration situation. It is also fair to say that at least 30,000 people are coming from within the EU and another 30,000 are coming into Ireland legally every year. We do not have the capacity right now to provide housing, so we have to look at where our industrial policy goes, where people should be working and what kinds of job are needed. We certainly need a lot of immigrants for jobs. I may have mentioned previously that when I was mayor, a Nigerian evangelical church celebrated St. Patrick's Day. Its members sang the national anthem in Irish and English and spoke about how proud they were to be Irish citizens. They are 100% Irish. They will always have Nigerian heritage and are proud of that as well. Newcomers make a hugely positive contribution to our country. That does not mean we cannot have a proper, respectful conversation, as others mentioned. We need to. What constitutes Irish cultural norms? I may be talking about the elephant in the room but in the UK, some nationalities were found to be convicted or arrested for sexual offences 30 times more than English citizens. Some of that may be racial profiling, but you cannot hide the fact there are different cultural norms. We need an education system so that if people do not follow our cultural norms, they are not welcome in this country. That is a fair comment. Let us have that conversation.

Sentiment score: 0.08