Like the last speaker, I had not intended to contribute but came in to welcome our new colleague. However, Senator McDowell is to be complimented on raising a very big subject here. Before we all get into our various boxes on the left and on the right, we should pause and stand back and look at some of the points he has made. My instinct is probably not the same as his on this issue. We in Ireland have vast experience of being accommodated and welcomed in many countries abroad. Certainly some of our emigrants were asylum seekers. In the days of the Fenians we were looked after in Paris and other places like that. However, the vast majority of our emigrants were economic emigrants. They went to Australia, England and America to better themselves financially and we should bear that in mind as well. Whatever I would say on the subject, I abhor totally the unlawful attack on the home of Deputy Martin Kenny, who is a fine Member of these Houses and who is highly respected. We cannot tolerate that. For the life of me, I am not a holy Joe but I think there is some Christianity in all of us and we have to do the best we can for people in this unfortunate plight. I really do not understand in my heart how some people in Christian Ireland are responding - minorities really - in the way they are. I am not saying it should be someplace else. Kerry has done well in this and we have a good record, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach knows. If they come to my town, I assure the House that they will be welcome there. Certainly keep the numbers tidy and small and have a nice separation but that is not what I came in here to say.

I warmly welcome Senator Hackett to the Chamber and I compliment her. It is a great honour for herself and her family to come to Oireachtas Éireann. I welcome her family and members of the Green Party. I compliment her colleagues in the Civic Engagement Group, with whom I agree most of the time. There is a certain issue in Ballylongford which I will be talking about here tomorrow and on which we cannot agree. Senator Hackett's tenure cannot be too long but it will not be as short as people think. My money is on around March 2021.

Ba bhreá liom freisin fáilte a chur roimh an Seanadóir Hackett. Tá súil agam go mbainfidh sí taitneamh agus tairbhe as a tréimhse anseo, cibé fhad a bheas aici. Cuirim fáilte roimh a fear céile agus a cuid páistí dar nóigh. Táimid ag súil le oibriú léi chun leas na tíre.

I welcome the debate that Senator McDowell so eloquently requested. As somebody who has always supported a structured but generous accommodation not just of asylum seekers but of economic migrants, I really think it is important that we do not hear phrases like "nothing can be said in these Houses". This debate suffers from a lack of intellectual honesty and when people are being accused of gaslighting the minute they raise an issue that others disagree with, it closes down debate. It is extraordinarily unhelpful and colleagues are not going to persuade people who are reluctant by being so judgmental of their fears and feelings. That seems to me to be obvious.

If I may, I want to return to the nostalgia that many people are feeling in these days and that has been expressed in this House with the sad news of the passing of Gay Byrne. He played a huge role in Irish life, as we all know, and in saying farewell to him, people are saying farewell to a part of their own lives and a part of our past. For most people, the memory of times past is a memory of happy times. There is also gratitude because Gay and his team did so much to entertain, inform and educate the nation.

He was a brilliant broadcaster and communicator at a time when, all over the western world, what was previously private was rapidly being made public. He exemplified and symbolised that new public expression. He and his team shone a light into dark corners of our society at a time when others found that threatening. However, we must never forget that the same dark corners existed in every society, and we still have dark corners in our society today. Indeed, the nostalgia that people feel today reflects the fact that the Ireland that Gay Byrne explored and reflected back to itself was mostly a happy one. I would like RTÉ to consider a systematic and unedited rebroadcasting of the extensive series of episodes of "The Late Late Show", because it would make for interesting and very valuable social history.

The work that others did with the material that Gay and his team brought to light reflected various agendas, some good and some bad. Some of that work ended injustices and some of it sadly contributed to the dark corners that exist in our society today. However that is often the case with the legacy of great figures. Today we pay our respects to a consummate professional, to the most effective broadcaster of his generation and to someone who affected all our lives and created so many lasting memories. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé and to his family our deep sympathy.

Does Senator Colette Kelleher wish to comment?

I was not going to speak but we need an honest debate in this House about asylum, refugees and economic migrants. That debate has to be framed by the notion and the belief that diversity is a positive thing and not de facto a negative thing. We should have our conversations and discussions in that light. I was an economic migrant for 17 years. I never felt like and never was a burden on the country in which I worked. People seek asylum and flee countries for a variety of reasons. Some are to do with wars, despots and people destroying their own people in a fashion that none of us here can possibly imagine. People also leave for other reasons. People left Ireland in the 1950s and went to other places because they were gay. I know for a fact that women leave countries that are considered to be welcoming and not in difficulty because they are experiencing domestic violence. We need to understand and have this debate in its fullness. I pay tribute to my own home town of Macroom, which has stretched out the hand of friendship, as it rightly should, to people seeking asylum who are living in direct provision centres there. Rural Ireland is not all one and the same. We need to promote the positives as well as the negatives. Once that debate is respectful, I am happy to have it. We should not slice and dice between genuine and non-genuine asylum seekers, or pit local people facing a housing crisis against people who are coming to the country for the refuge which we rightly offer and to which end we have signed international obligations. Once we have that understanding, I am very happy for us to have this debate. If we do not have that, it will be a waste of time. It will just fuel the rhetoric that can be found at times outside this House and that leads to the kind of horrible experiences recently undergone by Deputy Martin Kenny and his family.