I echo my colleagues' concerns in relation to this Bill. I will make some broad points and question the nature of what is being brought forward, the Government's approach, its language around migration, the words that have been used, what it says and what has been done. I do feel, and I know colleagues share this, a deep concern about the direction this Government has taken. There is an element of what feels and looks like performative cruelty, that is, to be seen to be hard on immigration in order to, essentially, capitulate to people who are making some deeply disingenuous and wrong claims about immigration and asylum seekers. We might look at what migration and immigration has done for this country. I was talking to a number of asylum seekers this week who are in direct provision. Does the Minister know what they are doing? They are working in construction. They are going out every day and building the homes we need. The Government, with these policies, could very well deport these people because it says it wants to take this hard line on immigration and asylum seekers. It is deeply disappointing. Asylum seekers up and down the country are working to provide care for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They are building our homes. Yet, what we are seeing from the Government is their demonisation. I have spoken to a number of lone-parent mothers who were living in direct provision and who talked about the eviction letters that were going out. The Government is evicting people from direct provision to forms of emergency accommodation that are not even being classed as homelessness. They are being ripped out of the communities where they are building links and integrating. I ask the Minister to stop this demonisation. The Tánaiste said he was concerned about the level of population growth and that it could damage social cohesion. What is damaging social cohesion is the performative cruelty that is, in essence, trying to take pressure off the Government for its failures and put it onto vulnerable people who have come to this country, who want to contribute and are contributing, and who are part of our communities. We need to take a different direction.

Sentiment score: -0.12