Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to deal with the thorny issue of migration, that Mr. Deering dealt with and showed great compassion about when he spoke. I think I am one of the only Members of the Oireachtas who actually went to Sicily to look at the wretched people being brought in from the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian Government invited us out at the time. I do not want to sound cold when I say this. I want to be factual. In Sicily, I met people who were genuine refugees chasing away from horrendous circumstances and lives. I also met people who were what I was myself in 1968, and that is an economic migrant. Taking the categorisation of people coming into the country first, I have no difficulty with economic migration. I was one and we claim 700 million people worldwide are in some way tied into the Irish diaspora.

I do not have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is the disregard for the public interest. We do not go into communities and speak to them before we open a centre in them. I had a panicked phone call one Sunday night that a stately home, an old home that was locked up for years, was about to be opened and filled with rapists. The woman who spoke to me was genuine in every way. This was all built up by rumour and whatever else. I wonder, because the Office of the Ombudsman tends to be straight in its dealings, whether the Ombudsman thinks we are not straight enough with communities.

It was brought up yesterday in the Seanad that the girl who was badly beaten in Limerick, Ms Natasha O'Brien, is now being attacked. When you analyse the people who are attacking her, they are the same people who are attacking migration, protesting outside politicians' houses, and marching up and down O'Connell Street with the tricolour rapped around them. There is a nasty group in society. Would we benefit if we were more straight and honest with people, particularly those coming into the country if they felt safe enough coming in to clearly identify which cohort they fit into?