I also wish to raise the shocking and inexcusable events that happened on Sandwith Street over the weekend. Obviously, there is no doubt that we should all unreservedly condemn attacks on homeless and vulnerable asylum seekers. We should be clear - from talking to people in the locality, it is absolutely clear - that politically motivated far-right activists were down in the area actively spreading false rumours, stirring up fears and ratcheting up the aggression and threats against the asylum seekers in the encampment. We must absolutely oppose that divisive, hate-filled racism. It is especially tragic that it could happen when we consider the decades and decades of racist discrimination Irish people suffered, of the "no dogs, no blacks and no Irish" kind, in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. We should therefore be clear in condemning this situation.

I must be honest, however, and say that a considerable amount of the responsibility for the situation which developed over the weekend, and other situations, lies at the door of this and successive Governments. First, it is responsible for leaving hundreds of people homeless and living in tents when the State has an obligation to provide them with somewhere to live. Second, it is responsible for failing to deal for over a decade with the dire housing and homelessness crisis and the scandal of tens of thousands of vacant and derelict properties which could be refurbished to address this crisis and to provide housing for all.

In particular, I was struck by the conversations I had with people from the flats in the Pearse Street area. They were appalled by what was done but said that insofar as the far right gained certain traction for its poisonous and divisive ideas, it was because of years and years of neglect of that area. Right beside the encampment, for example, lies St. Andrew's Court, where locals were de-tenanted in 2019. There have been years of promises to refurbish St. Andrew's Court for social housing but, five years later, a Government with a record budget surplus and a €1 billion underspend on housing has not yet approved the money to refurbish that location.

The people to whom I spoke pointed out that at the same time as Twitter is right beside them talking about diversity, they are excluded from employment in these industries. A lot of the stuff that has been built around the area is completely unaffordable for locals. Increasingly, they feel totally excluded and under pressure, and believe there has been an agenda to drive the local community out. That is being done because of the failures of Government and because of processes of gentrification and not, of course, because of refugees. The Government leaves the door open for that kind of thing, and for the far right and its poison, if it fails to deal with the deprivation, housing problems and dereliction in areas like Pearse Street and many other working-class areas.

I thank the Deputy. I do not agree with anything he said, except for the fact that he is right that what happened on Saturday night was absolutely wrong. Like him, I have condemned it.

The Government has made an unprecedented investment in communities, for example through SICAP, through investment in communities the length and breadth of the country and through the Department of Rural and Community Development. To say that there has been no investment in communities is wrong. We have addressed childcare, in particular childcare costs. There are many other issues. We have full employment in this country. Never before have so many people been working. We have invested in many areas.

The policies we have implemented have paid off in terms of our economy. There are pressures and there will always be challenges. Providing the accommodation we need for all of the people that are coming into this country is a challenge we face. There are people coming in every single day. We are doing everything we can to deal with the pressures and provide more accommodation.

As the Deputy knows, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will provide additional accommodation in a number of locations across the country. He hopes to announce offers of accommodation by the end of the week for international production applicants. I know it is difficult for communities. We are asking a lot of them. I understand their concerns. We need communities to work with us. When we work together as a country, we get great results. We worked together through Covid and came out of it better and stronger. We need to work together to deal with the challenges we currently face. People are coming to this country and are looking for asylum, help and support. We want to give them that. We will continue to work together as a Government right across Government. This is not just down to one Minister; we are all working together to try to find solutions and bring forward accommodation so that we can have a roof over people's heads as quickly as possible.

As I said, by the end of this week further accommodation will come on stream. I ask the people out there who have concerns to please work with us. We will continue to engage with them through local authorities and the Government.

I detest racism or anybody who whips it up. To meet desperate people who are homeless on the streets with hatred and fire is appalling and has to be condemned. I am telling the Minister that I spoke to people this morning in the locality who were equally appalled and oppose absolutely what was done. However, they told me there are many vulnerable people in the area. We need to remember there are 800,000 people living in deprivation in the country, many of whom are heavily concentrated in working-class areas like Pearse Street.

The person I spoke to told me the local population has more than halved over the past 20 years because people cannot afford places to live in the area, while gleaming new blocks spring up around them. Unlike employees of Twitter or whatever, who are well paid, they cannot afford to live in their own area. Right beside the site, an area designated for social housing five years ago has not been redeveloped. This is a problem.

There are neglected working-class communities and people being driven out of their own areas because they cannot afford to live in them due to the failure to deal with dereliction and provide social and affordable housing. That creates the conditions that the far right then comes in and exploits. We need to address that as well.

The Deputy should not be giving any excuses to the far right------

I did not give excuses. I said there are no excuses.

-----because what the far right is doing is wrong and we condemn it. The far-right protesters do not speak for the majority of the people of this country.

Of course not.

I agree with the Deputy there, but we should not be giving them credence or excuses. We have ramped up all of the measures we can in terms of increasing house building. The Deputy talked about dereliction; we have the Croí Cónaithe fund, which we increased only a couple of weeks ago. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, announced increases to €50,000 for a vacant property and €70,000 for a derelict building. These are all measures that will help to address some of the problems. We want to bring more houses back into supply, which involves looking at houses that are currently vacant. Sometimes there are issues and difficulties around that and we are trying to overcome those to bring more houses back into stock.