Yesterday, I attended a powerful rally at Grangegorman organised by the students' union at TU Dublin in response to a racist attack on international students. Two hundred students came out to say that we will not stand for people being attacked because of the colour of their skin or where they come from. It is exactly what we need in response to the spate of violent racist attacks we have seen in the wake of the anti-refugee protests - no pandering to racism but standing up strong against it.

It is the same spirit that will motivate thousands of people to participate in the Ireland For All solidarity march at Parnell Square at 1.30 p.m. this Saturday. It is now supported by almost the entire trade union movement; by migrants' organisations such as the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, the Irish Refugee Council and the Immigrant Council of Ireland; by anti-racist organisations like United Against Racism and Le Chéile; by feminist organisations like the National Women's Council of Ireland and Women's Collective Tallaght; by community organisations like Ballymun For All, Drimnagh For All and East Wall Here For All; and by football clubs and boxing clubs. The list goes on. They all understand the need to take a stand against racism and division. They know that in order to build a movement to force the Government to actually deal with the housing crisis, the health crisis and the neglect of our communities, we must stand united and that it only serves those who benefit from these crises to have people wrongly divided and wrongly blaming asylum seekers and refugees.

The Government has taken a very different approach. Last Wednesday, the Taoiseach told the Dáil that we should not play into those arguments. The very next day, he told the media that we need to be fair, firm and hard when it comes to migration. He spoke about people who come to Ireland with a false story or on false pretences. It was a shameful attempt to pander to anti-refugee sentiment and this shameful rhetoric has been matched with shameful actions. The Government has left over 100 people fleeing war and persecution sleeping on the streets in the context of an increase in racist violence. The Minister for Justice spoke inaccurately about people coming to our country illegally while speeding up deportations.

It is not a mystery where this political rhetoric will end up, because all across Europe, Fine Gael's sister parties have done exactly the same thing in response to the rise of the far right. All that has achieved is to legitimise its arguments and allow it to shape its narrative and drive its rise further.

Thankfully, the thousands who will turn out on Saturday do not share the Taoiseach's approach. They know there are enough resources in this country for everybody to have a decent home, a decent job and a decent standard of living, and they want to see homes for all, healthcare for all, services for all and an Ireland for all.

Will the Taoiseach listen to them? Will he abandon the current strategy, combat misinformation instead of pandering to it and tackle the underlying causes of alienation, which give fuel to anti-refugee sentiment, by committing to building social housing, using vacant properties and providing quality, accessible public healthcare for all?

Let me say at the outset that I do not believe there is any excuse for racism of any form, whether it is directed towards people who are new arrivals to this country, people who have been here for a long time or people who were born here. People should be judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin, full stop, and I do not think any of us, coming from any perspective, whether it is centre, right or left, should try to politicise the issue of racism or try to gain from it in any way. I certainly hope the Deputy will not be doing that.

We are facing, in Europe and in Ireland, an unprecedented refugee crisis, the likes of which we have never seen in this country. In the past year or so, we have accepted and welcomed maybe 100,000 people to Ireland, an absolutely huge number of people, most from Ukraine but others who have come from other parts of the world. By and large, we have been able to provide them with accommodation, food, shelter, heat and light, access to education and healthcare and, in many cases, access to employment too. I know it has not been a perfect response, but I am proud of the societal response from Ireland as to what we have managed to do in the past year. No country in western Europe, on a per capita basis, has accepted as many people from Ukraine as we have. Despite the enormous challenge, I believe we have done well it in the round and we should be willing to say that and to thank the Irish people and communities around the country, in particular, for the very warm welcome they have given people.

It is a real struggle to continue to find more accommodation and there is no point in being in any denial about that. If, two years ago, we had had amazing foresight, known Putin was going to invade Ukraine and we had built a city the size of Waterford with 20,000 houses and apartments for people who might come here, that place would be full by now. That is the scale of the numbers coming in. We have to try to manage that as best we can, and we will.

There are lots of people who will try to exploit the migrant crisis, for all sorts of reasons, on the far right and on the far left, and I will not be called out on that issue because I do not think it is right to conflate issues such as housing, healthcare, unemployment, crime, domestic violence or any of these things with migration. No matter what problem a country has, racists and the far right will blame that on migrants, and I think it is a mistake to conflate them. There are plenty of opportunities to have a go at the Government about any issue and I know the Deputy will take those opportunities, but he should not mix it up with an antiracism campaign. That is a mistake and I think he is playing into the hands of the far right in that regard.

Well said.

The Taoiseach says the far right and the far left will exploit the migrant crisis. I am not sure whether he has noticed, but the far right is organising protests outside the temporary, inadequate, emergency accommodation of asylum seekers. What is the far left doing? We are working with others to build a solidarity march to say that refugees are welcome and that these people are not responsible for the housing crisis. I have no idea what the Taoiseach is talking about.

The Taoiseach said people should not use this issue for political advantage and I agree. He will be talking to Senator Regina Doherty, who has spoken about people taking advantage of some of the “frailties in our system". He will be speaking to Fianna Fáil backbencher Deputy John McGuinness, who has called for a plan to move asylum seekers into a Kilkenny city hotel to be paused. He will be having a chat with himself, perhaps, about the use, very conscious, of the terms “fair, firm and hard”, which generated precisely the headlines he wanted.

Ordinary people do not agree with the Taoiseach's Government. They disagree with it for the creation of the housing crisis and for the representation of developers, speculators and so on.

They also do not agree with those who try to exploit those divisions.

Thank you, Deputy.

They will be on the street in their thousands this Saturday, 1.30 p.m. at Parnell Square. Finally, I would say-----

No, we are way over time.

Is the Taoiseach proud of over 100 people sleeping on the streets tonight, with a Dunne's voucher and €5 phone credit? Is that something to be proud of?

It is absolutely right that people should stand up against racism. We are working on a new national anti-racism strategy and will have that quite soon. We will implement it and fund it. However, I do not think that anyone should use an anti-racism campaign to promote a particular political party or particular ideology and I do not think that should be done. I will keep on saying that whether the Deputy likes it or not. As I have always said, I believe migration has been a good thing for Ireland. It has been good for our economy, good for our public services and it has helped to enrich our culture as well but people do want migration to be managed properly. There is nothing wrong with people wanting migration to be managed properly. That means being fair with refugees who come here from abroad fleeing war and making sure they get the protection that they deserve, and having legal pathways to migration. A total of 40,000 work permits issued last year to people coming here as economic migrants legally but it does mean being firm with the minority of people whose stories are not true and who come here on false pretences, telling them that their application will be processed quickly and refused, and that they will be returned. There is nothing wrong with that and if the Deputy thinks that nobody should be returned home, even if their story is false, he should be honest about that.

I am saying the Taoiseach is playing into anti-refugee rhetoric very cynically. It is contemptible.