This afternoon our first thoughts are with a little girl and her carer who are gravely ill in hospital following a horrific knife attack. Second, we extend our heartfelt thanks to those who intervened, and to all the services for helping protect our capital city from mindless violence, and far right-fuelled hatred and fury. However, I want to raise the broader issue of migration policy in Ireland, both at national and local level, and to ask him as our Taoiseach to lead that discussion and communicate with and listen to those people who now feel excluded from that discussion. Last Friday night a potential public order situation was developing in Dromahair, County Leitrim, where rumours circulated that buses carrying migrants were about to arrive in the village. Crowds gathered, and I believe some outsiders arrived and some illegal checkpoints were set up, which should never have happened. The concerned residents of Dromahair called An Garda Síochána, and 90 minutes later two gardaí, who I believe were covering most if not all of north County Leitrim, arrived as soon as they could. As it turned out, no bus arrived and the situation dissipated. While I will raise the issue of Garda resources later with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, I ask why did this happen. How did this situation develop?

I do not have all of the answers, but I know this much. A few weeks ago I met with concerned residents in Dromahair when the Department wrote to inform them that 155 international protection, IP, applicants would arrive in their village. I contacted the Department asking for support for a village that has no community centre, whose national school has an emergency application in for two additional classrooms, where they are fundraising for a decent surface for their pitch and where their medical centre is already chock-a-block. I got no response - nothing. Thanks to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, the Department is now meeting them, but that is after Friday night. That is putting out fires. That is not proactive migration policy.

Will the Taoiseach speak openly and honestly to the Irish people? Will he fill that policy vacuum, and clearly articulate his migration policy to give people a sense that he and his Government are in control and in charge? It was recently reported that the Taoiseach spoke about the need to slow the flow of migration and to be realistic about the supports offered. Is that the Taoiseach's view and is it Government policy? Crucially, will his Government really work proactively with communities like Dromahair concerned residents who told three TDs at a meeting last Sunday that they will be first in line to help support and integrate families who may arrive in their village? However, they need to be assisted, enabled and to have their community capacity built to do so. Trust in communities is a fragile thing, and cohesion even more so. I am asking the Taoiseach to help restore both.

I thank Deputy Harkin. I am aware of the situation in Dromahair. I have been briefed about it but only today and I do not want to comment on it in detail in case I do not have all the facts. I am told that a community engagement team has been set up, and it has been engaging with Deputies Feighan, Harkin and Kenny in an effort to set out exactly what is and is not happening in Dromahair. Deputy Harkin asked what our immigration and migration policy is. Let me be as clear as I can be, and sometimes it is difficult to be clear because this is not straightforward. There are different types of migration and different types of migrants. The situation is that anybody who is a UK or Irish citizen has a right to live in this country. Anybody who is an EU or EEA citizen has a right to live, work, study and do business in this country, just as we can in all of their countries too.

That is what it means to be part of the European Union. I think the advantages of that outweigh the disadvantages manifold, and people have voted that way in referendums on many occasions.

When it comes to anyone else, in order to enter the country, a person requires a visa. It might be a work visa, it might be a student visa or it might be a work permit. Of course vetting occurs in those instances. Separate to that, we have people who arrive from Ukraine under the temporary protection directive. They have a right to be here under European law. We do our best to accommodate them as best we can. They have the right to work and study.

Then we have people who arrive in an irregular manner. Under international law, and just as is the case in Italy, Britain, France and America, they can apply for protection. Our job is to assess their applications as quickly as possible, give them legal status if they are entitled to it and, if they are not, to issue deportation orders and ensure those are enforced.

This is our migration policy. I know it is not simple and I know it is not straightforward, but it cannot be, as life is not straightforward and the world is not straightforward. There are different people coming from different countries for different reasons. That is the policy that we have.

Finally, regarding the terrible events that occurred on Parnell Square on Thursday, I really would ask people to try to avoid connecting crime with migration. It is not right.

Hear, hear.

Yes, of course people who are migrants might commit crimes, just as people who are not commit crimes. In a country of 5.3 million people, if there are hundreds of thousands of migrants, there are going to be a few of them who commit terrible crimes, just as there are people born and bred in Ireland who commit terrible crimes every day, including murder. When I look at what happened on Parnell Square, what I see is a suspect who is a migrant, although a citizen and someone who has been here for over 20 years. I see a five-year-old child in hospital today, both her parents coming from migrant backgrounds, with her born in Ireland. Of the five or six people who intervened to stop the attack, four of them were migrants to this country. It is totally wrong to try to make out that there is a connection between crime and migration based on what happened on Parnell Street.

Hear, hear.

Of the alleged assailant, the victims and those who stopped the attack, most are from migrant backgrounds.

I agree with most of what the Taoiseach said. I certainly have not heard anyone in the Chamber today conflate terrible crimes with migrants. There is no evidence to support that. I am also not grandstanding and looking for the head of the Minister. As I said to the Taoiseach at the end of my initial comments, this is the time for cohesion and we need to see how we can work together.

However, there is also a reluctance to grasp the nettle sometimes and to be honest with people. It is not enough to say Irish people are generous and welcoming. They are, but that is not enough. This is a very sensitive and complicated issue. I agree with the Taoiseach that it is global and national, but people are looking to the Government to have an honest and open discussion about its overall policy and the granular detail in terms of how that policy is being managed and how communities can respond to it in a positive way and not putting out fires after the fact, which is terrible for communities and is driving division. The Taoiseach knows it and I know it. It is the Government’s responsibility to stop that happening.

Thanks very much, Deputy. When it comes to concerns about migration - I talk to a lot of people about this all the time – I do not think the vast majority of people gave huge concerns about people coming to Ireland from the UK or the European Union, or about people coming here with work visas or student visas from outside the European Union. There is a real concern around irregular migration – people arriving here seeking international protection. Precisely because it is so hard to manage, we do not know how many will arrive on any given day, where they will be from or what documents they will have. Contrary to what you will hear and to what is being spread about the place, the number of people seeking international protection in Ireland this year will be lower than last year. It will be roughly 13,000 this year, down from 15,000 the year before. That is in part because of actions we have taken as the EU to secure the external borders of the European Union and also in this State in terms of managing our own borders better.

However, it is naive to think any government can stop the flow entirely when there are hundreds of millions of people on the move in the world. Within weeks of a government being elected in Italy very much the basis of on an anti-migration platform, more people landed on the island of Lampedusa than live there. We saw the attempts of former President Trump in the US. Huge numbers of people arrived throughout his presidency. We also know what is happening in the UK. We have to be honest with people about this. The world is a dangerous place. Europe is paradise, and Ireland is one of the best parts of paradise for most people in the world. Hundreds of millions of people are on the move. Thousands will come here and we just have to manage that as well as we can.