I spoke last week about this legislation and how a vacuum leaves a space for bad actors, racists and misinformation to come in. Such a vacuum is caused by the lack of information going into our communities. In my area, Clondalkin, we have what is probably one of the longest running direct provision centres in the country. It has been there for over 20 years. The fact that we have a direct provision centre in the community for that long is a stain on the Government. It has failed with direct provision and is now failing people in IPAS accommodation and accommodation for Ukrainians. About ten years ago, there was a move to move people from the direct provision centre somewhere down the country, outside Dublin. The good people of Clondalkin – I was with them – rallied to keep the direct provision centre in their area. The reason is that those in the centre had benefited the community. They went to school with my kids, played football for the local GAA club and football team and became part of the community. Over the next couple of years, several other forms of accommodation were introduced, including IPAS accommodation and accommodation for Ukrainians. Centres seemed to be popping up from the Red Cow and Dulcain House to the Ibis Hotel without any communication or consultation whatsoever. It was Sinn Féin members who spoke to people at the doorsteps to inform them as to what was happening and let them know there was nothing to worry about. The Government should have been doing that but it was not. We had to fill a vacuum in our community. Having no communication leads to misinformation. I spoke last week about how misinformation can allow the ground to be planted for bad actors. I spoke on the Social Democrats motion this morning on GP services. A GP service was to come to my area – this was fantastic as it was absolutely needed – but a rumour went around that the building was going to be an IPAS centre. People came not just from Clondalkin but also from all over Dublin and threatened to burn it down. That is because there was no communication. That is why we are asking for community impact assessments and for information to be circulated. I also spoke last week about how TDs and others in my community found out through the national papers that the Citywest centre was going to become a public international protection centre. That is no way to communicate to people. During Questions on Policy or Legislation, I stood here and asked the Taoiseach for clarity on whether Citywest would become a public centre. He gave me no clarity whatsoever. At the same time as I was speaking to him, the Minister was outside on the plinth making an announcement on it. The Minister can check the timeline. The Taoiseach could not even give me an answer in here while the Minister was making an announcement outside. That is no way to communicate to people. As regards this amendment, I heard some of the criticism and I would say the Minister is sitting over there delighted to see people over here having a go at other people over here. That is what he wants because it takes the eye off him and the Government's failures on this. To criticise us for coming in here and speaking on something and taking up time when the Government has put a guillotine on this tonight is absolutely disgraceful. As Deputy Carthy said, we on the justice committee said we would give the Government as much time as it needed to discuss this in the committee room. We would have done so five days a week if necessary just to get through all of this. The Government, however, declined that offer and decided to come here and guillotine the Bill. The amendment we are talking about is about just a community impact assessment. It is not about a veto. It is about finding out if a community can take on extra vulnerable people in a situation where there are already a hell of a lot of vulnerable people. How do you look at that? You use the Pobal index of deprivation, and we spoke about that last week. If we can fill that vacuum with a community assessment and proper communications, it will stop the vacuum and will actually stop racism and misinformation getting out there.

Sentiment score: -0.12