For me, this is about listening to the people and that is about uniting rather than dividing people. We need to communicate with local communities. It is disappointing to see the Government and fellow colleagues on the left, when we are tabling sensible amendments which are about good planning, making this issue about Sinn Féin, which it should not be. I absolutely despise racism. I have been to many of these centres, sat down and drunk tea with the people there. As a councillor, I have been involved in integration days, lots of different collaborations, cultural evenings, etc. This is about planning, really. It is about a policy that is sensible and sustainable. We have roughly 320 centres, I believe, across the State. Seventy-eight of them are in Dublin. How diverse is Dalkey? How many centres are in Dalkey or in similar places? They always seem to be in working-class and rural communities that are isolated and which lack services. I would assume that any progressive-minded person, whether on the left or on the right, would want to call out greed and speculation. I am looking at €1.2 billion given to private providers last year. I am looking at people who did not have much money becoming millionaires overnight, people speculating and people running a train through planning laws. I look at Blessington and Kippure, in Wicklow. Seefin Events has been through the courts numerous times. Wicklow County Council had to order it to demolish 65 units because apparently it did not follow planning laws. It is about sensible planning. I look at Dundrum, County Tipperary, and a manor house. Often there is a speculator and international finance capital involved in this. More people were put into this centre than was the population of the village. How is that good planning? My colleague, Deputy Doherty, mentioned the Gaeltacht area of Gweedore. The whole idea was supposed to be about developing Irish speakers in the Gaeltachtaí, which are basically dying. How would Gweedore be a suitable area? How would Carna, in Connemara, be a suitable area? In my own county, Rosslare is an area which is probably the most welcoming in Ireland. You could not find a more welcoming area or village. They had two IPAS centres. There was a fantastic response to the Ukrainian war. They organised a €100,000 fundraiser in the first couple of weeks. They were due to have a nursing home in the Great Southern Hotel. What happened then? It was flipped by a big speculator - finance capital again. They were looking for planning to put 400 into the Great Southern Hotel in this tiny village. Luckily, people stopped it because it was not sensible. This is the way to oppose racism. It is about uniting people and listening to people. That has not been happening so far. I could mention numerous other examples all across Ireland, like Achill Island, etc. There are just so many of them. I think of Seefin Events, the company in Blessington that I mentioned, and Kippure. They received €5.6 million during last summer. Then we have Wicklow County Council telling them that they have to demolish because it was done in breach of planning regulations. How could that be good policy? Why would anybody on the left support that? Why would my colleagues to my right support people making €1.2 billion, finance capital groups-----
Sentiment score: 0.02
You are calling out our amendment. That is what we are saying.
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We are saying we should not be playing to these. We should not be giving into this agenda being driven by speculators and finance capital-----
Sentiment score: -0.20
-----because they are the people who are driving this into these areas.
Sentiment score: 0.00
At the end of the day, for me, it comes down to the best way to unite people, which is just to listen to the people, listen to local communities and try to have fair planning policies. As I said, how many centres are in Dalkey? How many centres are in Foxrock? It is about fair planning. That is the way I look at it.
Sentiment score: 0.22
We have to have transparency. There is the example of the two directors of a cafe which had a profit of €2,992. Three years later, they paid themselves €4.6 million. There is something very strange there. Looking at my area of County Wicklow, €1.3 million was spent on security for the vacant site of a failed IPAS centre. It is just a site sitting there. Deputy John Brady brought it into the public domain at a recent meeting of the public accounts committee. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report has raised serious concerns about all of these things. There is very poor compliance and safety. For example, a demolition order was granted for 65 units that were built illegally by Seefin Events in Blessington, according to what I have read. There is huge profiteering and overcharging. We had an instance of a VAT overcharge of €7.4 million by one company to the State and the taxpayer. There is a complete lack of due diligence. No one in their right mind can oppose transparency in these contracts. There has to be transparency.
Sentiment score: -0.03
I will briefly reinforce Deputy Carthy's points. Two years ago, the Secretary General of the Department of integration gave out the figures for payments per night. He highlighted how the State was paying the private accommodation providers over twice the amount that was being paid to house asylum seekers in State-owned accommodation. That just reinforces the contradictions within this system yet again.
Sentiment score: -0.08
Similarly, and as I have a background in primary teaching, I am quite concerned at giving Tusla more of a role. Many people would certainly question the merits of this because over the past five years, there have been 7,000 recorded cases of children going missing from Tusla care. I remember Tusla came before one of the committees, when it acknowledged that 33 separated children or unaccompanied minors who were seeking international protection are now officially missing. They are still missing today. That is 33 separated children; God knows where they are. With the amount of sexual exploitation and trafficking going on in the world at the moment, who knows where they are? I certainly have concerns about giving an extra role to a body that seems to already be overburdened and under-resourced.
Sentiment score: 0.20
Human trafficking is a problem that needs to be eliminated. I believe Ireland is ranked in tier two in terms of international comparisons, which means we are not really doing what we should be doing or can do to eliminate human trafficking. In the region of 67 victims of trafficking were formally identified, including five to ten children, and in many cases they ended up being subject to labour, sexual and other of forms of exploitation. It is clear the State is not doing nearly enough in comparison with other countries to eliminate this pernicious form of exploitation.
Sentiment score: -0.08