We move on to Leaders' Questions. Under Standing Order 38 I call Deputy McDonald.

We must address events in Belfast over the past 48 hours. There was a knife attack on Monday night that was barbaric, vicious and depraved; the stuff of nightmares. The victim suffered horrific slash injuries to his eyes, face and neck. Were it not for the selfless bravery of members of the community, including Maitiu Mág Tighearnán putting himself at risk by jumping from his car and using his son’s hurl to stop the brutal assault, the victim would surely have lost his life.

I acknowledge and thank the first responders on the scene and the swift action of the PSNI, which apprehended the suspect of this heinous crime. He is now in custody, faces the full weight of the law and must pay a heavy price for this brutal crime. My thoughts are of course with the victim and his family as they live through this nightmare and as he continues to be treated in hospital. It was right that political leaders in the North came together to unequivocally condemn this attack and call for the swift delivery of justice. The assault provoked genuine shock, disgust and anger across communities.

Last night, groups of masked men burned families out of their homes, targeted and attacked innocent people and terrified and endangered small children. We witnessed racist intimidation and violence orchestrated by loyalist and far-right thugs. These are people hell-bent on whipping up hatred for their own ends. Many of those leading this violence are the same people who will burn Tricolours on the top of bonfires on 12 July. What occurred last night echoes back to the pogroms on Bombay Street in 1969, when families and children were burnt out of their homes by loyalist mobs. Why? Because they were Catholic and Irish. Many were forced to leave, fleeing for their lives across the Border into Dundalk and beyond. They were refugees in their own country.

This was inflicted on Irish nationalists time and again. When we said "never again" and that we would never allow anyone to be treated this way again, we meant it. We meant anyone - not Irish and not any community. Nobody has the right to spread fear, intimidate or terrify innocent families. We have a duty to communities to show political leadership and stand up for what is right. The good, decent people of Belfast have lived through division and hatred before. They wear the scars and pain of those times and will not allow it to happen again. They will not allow their peace and better future to be robbed from them.

In the aftermath of this violence, threats have been made to the life of Belfast’s mayor, Róis-Máire Donnelly. She will not bow to these threats of violence against her. She will continue to stand with every community in Belfast and continue to call out racist thugs. I ask the Taoiseach to join with me in offering support to the victim of Monday night's vicious assault and to take this opportunity to condemn unequivocally the appalling, orchestrated violence carried out against innocent families last night.

The events of the last few days in Northern Ireland have filled us with horror. The attack on that young person two nights ago was absolutely savage and horrific. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family. It is beyond our comprehension that a person could wield such violence on another individual in such a manner. The very graphic representation of that on social media has shocked many people. Like the Deputy, I salute the courage of Maitiu Mág Tighearnán for his very brave intervention to essentially save the life of the victim.

The violence of last night has to be roundly condemned. I pay tribute to all of the political leaders who yesterday responded in the first instance to the attack of the previous evening, and for the unified message condemning any attacks on individuals, families and homes. What we witnessed last evening is absolutely appalling - that families would be burned out of their homes because of race or ethnic reasons. I join with all Members of this House in condemning unreservedly the attacks of last evening. They were orchestrated. We have had evidence of this in other countries where situations like this are exploited, which results in the violence of the type we saw last evening.

All of us have to be very vigilant and clear in standing up for fundamental, human values in terms of the dignity of every single individual in our society. We uphold and defend the dignity of every single individual irrespective of what transpires or occurs and fully support the rule of law. In this instance, we fully support the PSNI in terms of its investigation of both the crime against that young individual and the violence and criminal activity in evidence last evening across the North but particularly in Belfast. An Garda Síochána will continue to work with the PSNI in terms of the broader issues that relate to this. More fundamentally, we must call on all citizens to support the police, in this instance the PSNI, to get swift justice in respect of the appalling attack two nights ago, but also in terms of those who targeted individuals in their homes and burned out people from their homes.

This brings back appalling memories of incidents of this kind from the late 1960s and early 1970s but it has a particular manifestation in today’s world. I watched some of the commentary from some social media outlets, and some media platforms of a particular orientation or political disposition which, to say the very least, was decidedly unhelpful in terms of how they portrayed the events of the past 48 hours. There can never be any implied justification for the attacks of last evening.

Hear, hear.

There never can be any attempt at rationalisation of it either. Nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands or to say to someone,“You are not living here any more”.

Of course, everyone has the right to live in safety. That vicious, depraved assault causes all of us disgust. Savagery like that has no place on our streets in any part of Ireland. The perpetrator of an act like that must face the full weight of justice.

The organised mobs, and this was organised, who burned families out of their homes and terrified children are the same people who in July will burn Irish Tricolours on the top of their bonfires. These people and their organised racism need to be faced down.

To carry out actions like that and then to threaten the life of Belfast's first citizen, Róis-Máire Donnelly, reflects just how serious this matter is. I invite the Taoiseach again to assert that we will jointly face this down and I ask him to address the issue of those threats to Belfast's first citizen.

Such threats are appalling and must be roundly condemned. Unfortunately, it has become a phenomenon in this era that there are increasing numbers of threats to public representatives across the board. To threaten the Lord Mayor in the context of yesterday and the day before is appalling and has to be condemned. All threats to public representatives have to be condemned. Unfortunately, both the Garda and the PSNI are pursuing too many cases where threats are made to the lives of politicians in this House, in the Northern Assembly or, in this case, to the Lord Mayor. We all join in condemning that.

We also have to face down racism. We also have to make sure that our Garda here and the PSNI in the North are adequately resourced and supported without any equivocation-----

There is none.

-----in all communities to pursue these people who seem to think they can create an alternative-----

Thank you, Taoiseach. Time is up.

Loyalists.

-----framework to get their way. They must be resisted by all of us.