I join with the Leader in welcoming the students from St. Gerald's College, Castlebar. I thank Harry Gaughan for organising the visit. I had the pleasure of having him on an internship programme for several days a week as part of his schoolwork. He showed great interest and was anxious that his team would come and join him. His team is a big team. If Harry ever decides to go into politics, he will have a fairly significant canvassing team around him. We might not have as much excitement today as we did in the days he was here. The crisis at RTÉ in respect of licence fees was going on at the time. We do not blame Harry for that crisis blowing up, but it is a little calmer today.

Yesterday we discussed the issues that flared up on O'Connell Street last Thursday. Part of that debate is the issue of migration and the way in which that issue has been hijacked by elements of the far right. They have used it for their own political ideology. They have used social media and other channels to spread disinformation. This House, politics generally and people who have a right-minded approach to the way society should be ordered have a duty to counteract that. For decades, there has been an unwritten rule in Ireland that we do not discuss the race issue. We leave it alone and try not to push back against this far right thing. We now have a duty now to discuss it and push back. We need an open discussion. We need to counter the untruths that are being told. Unfortunately, certain people in society are, through no fault of their own, being fed untruths and misinformation that are leading them in a direction I do not believe their hearts or heads want to go. As a society, we must challenge this at every opportunity. I am not just talking about challenging the hard right on the streets, rather, engaging in appropriate debate, generating truthful information from the centre and explaining our approach to migration. We should be explaining where these people are coming from, the lives they are leading, the pressures and unbelievable situations in many of their countries and why they need help and support. I hear the misinformation or disinformation about open borders and fighting-age men coming to Ireland, as if to provide a narrative, which is being pushed by the far right, that these people are coming to invade our country. Sadly, there are people who believe it. They believe it because those of us who see ourselves as being more middle of the road and responsible politically are not hammering back. We have not done so because there was an unwritten rule among politicians generally that you did not get into these debates; you just ignored these people and they went away. They are not going away. Rather, they are broadening their base. Through the use of social media in particular, they are disinforming people and creating a very dangerous situation. We should start an open and frank debate on this matter here in the Seanad and it should transcend to the Dáil and committees. If we start discussing these matters here in an open and frank way, it will permeate to create a greater debate in society.

I agree with some of what my colleague, Senator Dooley, has said, but I disagree to an extent. The worst thing to happen in our country for a long time happened last Thursday morning with the stabbing of innocent people, including three young children and their carer. Our thoughts and prayers must remain, in particular, with the five-year-old child who remains in a critical condition and with her family. That was, by a mile, the worst thing that happened last Thursday, far worse than the violence, disorder and vandalism that took place later that day, appalling though it was. We need to keep that perspective because the safety of people is always more important than the safety of property. It is the safety of people that should be the lens through which to examine the statements and utterances from the Garda, the Taoiseach and the Government in recent days. Frankly, I do not need to know whether terms like "lunatic", "far right" and "hooligan" are in the Garda Commissioner's vocabulary. I do not need to hear the outrage. I want explanation of what happened and reassurance for the future. Why was the Garda unable to prevent arson and looting at first? How could some of its members have been endangered in the way that happened? Was the time it took to get control of the situation reasonable? What does the Garda need for the future to deal with these threats? It needs more personnel, more resources and, if necessary, more laws. I agree that the strongest measures of law and order are required in response to the thuggery on the streets but many people in Fine Gael in particular must be worried that their party in government has lost touch with the concerns of ordinary voters and gives the impression of being more interested in closing down public debate and in cancel culture than in keeping people safe in practical ways. Fianna Fáil is not immune either. Migration is part of last week's story. There are concerns about whether we are managing it in a way that identifies and deals with the small number of people who may come to our shores with mental health problems or extreme ideologies, perhaps exacerbated by past traumas. At the same time, a Brazilian immigrant who put his own safety at risk and perhaps saved children's lives last week exemplified the nobility and courage to which all Irish people should aspire. He reminded us that we should be generous to migrants because we may be entertaining angels unawares.

The events of last week do not point to a need for vague and imprecise hate speech legislation which undermines democratic rights to speak. The Government must step back from any opportunism here. It must step back from the temptation not to waste a good crisis. If there was incitement on social media, and there may well have been, it was incitement to violence. That is where the trouble is. These distinctions matter. The Government seems to want to avoid the discussion about how people are to be kept safe by pretending that if you can silence enough awkward questions and viewpoints, the problems will go away. We will have a better Ireland when we are generous to migrants, but when people also know they can keep their Government's feet to the fire in order that everyone can feel safe, and free speech for our citizens is vital for that. There cannot be any elitist talking down to people about what topics they may discuss and what topics are forbidden. That does not work in a democracy; it only pushes things underground and stores up problems for the future. That is part of the story of what we are living now. I do not want to hear more talk from the Government, any cynical use of this crisis to push through vague, imprecise and dangerous hate speech legislation.