Mattie McGrath condemns children in direct provision, calls for reform

The system of direct provision for asylum seekers is almost 18 years old, and from the beginning it has caused a significant controversy and debate. Among the issues raised most frequently are the duration of stay in direct provision, the impact of this on family life and children, issues around oversight and monitoring, and the question of the right to work, which thankfully has been changed quite recently. In 2015 the Joint Committee on Public Services Oversight and Petitions stated that the system is not fit for purpose and recommended that it should be replaced. The latest available annual report by the Reception and Integration Agency , which oversees the direct provision system on behalf of the Department of Justice and Equality, reveals that the number of single male seeking asylum and availing of the offer of accommodation stands at 55.66% of the total applicants. There is also clear evidence that the number of children consigned to these facilities is unacceptably high. We hope we have our own children spending their childhoods in hotels, if we had, and in emergency accommodation. We have children who have fled or who have arrived here with their parents spending their childhoods in direct provision centres, where they fled from, in many cases, most appalling and most awful. It is simply not good enough, Minister. I want to say this quite emphatically, that from a humanitarian perspective, we are duty bound to offer whatever assistance we can to those genuinely in need of asylum and to further ensure that those who enter into the direct provision system are treated with dignity and respect. And that is of paramount importance. The human person must be at the centre of all our laws. If people are genuinely fleeing persecution and seeking refuge, then we should extend our compassion and put it into action, the principle that we spend so much time talking about. It is absolutely appalling to read reports that some children are spending almost their entire childhood in the centres of the direct provision system. This must end, Minister. However, while our humanitarian duty is clear, so also is our duty to the security of our state. The issue of oversight and monitoring and how the application process is managed is critically important. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that our asylum system, just like those in most other European countries, is not open to abuse and violation. It is not by any manner of means. Most systems can be violated and undermined. There are those who will seek to enter this state through the asylum system and who will not have our best interest at heart. Of course, we must not confuse these people with the genuine asylum seeker, but we must not be so innocent as to believe that all applicants are genuine. If you see the figures that have been refused, they are very, very high from many, many countries. Very high, almost 97% to 98%. The direct provision system, as part of the overall asylum process, certainly needs to become more robust, even as it seeks to become more fair. That might be a challenge, but it must be both robust and fair. The number of asylum seekers accommodated by the Reception and Interrogation Agency in December 2015 was 4,696. That was already an increase of 332 persons, or 7.6% from the same date in 2014. It was all to the second year on-year increase in seven years. The RIA spent £57.025 million in respect of the accommodation of the asylum seekers in 2015, an increase of 4.7% on 2014 outturn. As I understand it, however, there are about 6,100 people in direct provision. This is four years after the final Gale Labour Government's own working report, Minister. A direct provision made numerous recommendations on how to make the system more humane. This is several years later, and nothing really has changed of significance. So, Minister, you need to look at your own record also here. You made recommendations, you had a working group report, and like many, many more reports, it's gathering dust on shelves. So, that's not fair by any arstic. Indeed, we have a reception centre, a second one now, in Browse of Cain, quite recently. I want to salute Councillor Joe Hannigan and all the members there, and indeed the public, for the engagement there. Again, they were landed on them without any notice, which is part of the problem. We are a very welcoming people, the Ireland of a thousand welcomes. People in the main want to be fair and reasonable and respectful and help any way they can. With a linden hand, the mehill, the centre of the mehill is still there. And they get this landed again, and the public meeting was held, and some people tried to infiltrate it, and they wouldn't want it, or welcome. And they got centre bags packing. And it could be held up as a model, not that they wanted to be held up as a model, but it could be held up as a model of how to do things right. Not an old building at all, but a new building, but they were left idled. Now they're being used. And the families are being integrated. And I mentioned as well Abelahedrine and Roscommon, where there was a difficulty at the start, this quiet. And the Frogo group, for one of the groups they got involved, had a wonderful project of integrating the teenagers and the younger people, and indeed won a national award for it. And that's the way, in Natalie Curlakela, that's the way to do it. But the heavy hand, and I have to be very critical of the pattern of justice, and ye are the figureheads, leaders, of the way they're doing this, and the way they have done it, and the way they have secrecy clouding around it. I don't accept all this issue of contracts and tenders. We have contracts and tenders for every project we're duty bound to have. Why is this so different? There has to be secrecy and everything else. Secency only develops rumours, and falsehoods, and different things get said, and they grow legs, as you know. So it's better to be upfront with people. Ask and you shall receive, and people will, and will support. You'll get people to have worries, and they can be allayed and disgust. And I will take you up on behalf of the Rule of Independence, too, Minister. I wasn't hearing the offer, or Minister Flanagan. We are willing to meet you and talk to you as well, and engage. And we have a right to ask questions. Any deputy in any House. If we lose that here in this House, and indeed the other House, it's got help us. If a member can stand up and ask a question, when he has figures from the World Bank Organisation, and supply it to him, and ask questions about them. And we have a right in this chamber to ask those questions. By being shouted down and being called racist, that is outrageous. That is an attack on democracy, from the great Liberals, that tell us they know everything, they want everything. So that is, I want to defend Deputy Greenish in that right. He's 100% right to ask a question here. And the Crown Cola allowed him to do. We're elected here for that purpose. And the people can be the final arbitrator than anybody else after that. Not bullied by tactics and being called all kinds of names. So indeed, Mr Justice Brian McMahan, who also chaired the working group on direct provision, appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee of Justice and made the very points. During the committee debate, Justice McMahan stated that in 2018 there was a definite trending increase in new applications averaging over more than 300 per month. Justice McMahan also noted in committee that those who have received positive decisions about leaving direct provision are obliged to continue to live in the centres for accommodation. That's not fair. As we noted, at present it is estimated there are between 700 and 800 such persons trying to transition out of direct provision but cannot do so, only to the shortage of accommodation. The Oireachtas is obliged to provide emergency accommodation outside of the centres. This is a costly business, as we all know, under the housing crisis. It's costing the region of €99 a night per person to accommodate those who cannot be accommodated in direct provision centres. As the migrant crisis continues to show no signs of abating, we can be sure that the costs and the number of applicants within our asylum process will remain similar and more than likely increase in the coming years. What is most depressing is that this has been going on for years now. The Government has faced direct provision onto communities with little or no meaningful communication. That's the problem. The Department of Justice only seems to engage after the fact that they wonder why people are so annoyed and frustrated. Surely you know. You're from Rural Land Minister. You know how communities take and work. And it's bringing them with us. An engagement. In fact, as far back as December 2015, I asked the Minister for Justice Fitzgerald at the time, who addressed concerns around legislation of a hotel in Clarnay Strand as a emergency reception, not far down the road for you, Minister. It was an orientation centre. And the concerns were brought to me by local people, who were deeply frustrated at the lack of engagement with them before the decision was made. No other reason. Just general information and consultation. As part of the reply I received, I was told that, in such cases, potential centres are assessed from a number of perspectives, including access to local amenities, the provision of state services, and the sensibility of the accommodation for its particular purposes. So putting him some places that you've put him lately without telling people, with none of these services, flies in the face of that. There's not a single mention of local engagement in that reply. I know this was for a refugee centre, and so it's not strictly the same as asylum centres, but I just want to note how important this is, that we have big communities with us, and when we are attempting to progress the matter in a manner that's all concerned. And I want to salute the people of Caricature, who have a centre for 18 years, and the committee down there now, and there was lots of problems at the start, and they were incarcerated there, and a big gated building, and it was them and us, but Sister Bridget and many mores down there, Marie Walsh and others, have engaged and embraced, and we meet them now, integrating in the community, and they have been well treated and well respected, as they should be. They're human beings, and, but we need to have support, and put in the support services, and we can't just fight them on people. Goedermahigod. Mobile. Outputs. 2 2 2 2 3