Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this matter. Background is always very helpful. When we talk about droves of people coming into the country, that is not accurate. We have a total of just under 26,000 people in direct provision. I hope I have a chance to come back to the inhuman, unacceptable direct provision we were supposed to finish a long time ago. Of those 26,000 people, a shocking number have been granted refugee status and have no place to go. More than 5,000 people with refugee status cannot leave direct provision. If we cannot cope with 26,000 people under our international obligations, there is something seriously wrong, and that is the case.

We set up a direct provision centre as a temporary measure back in 2000. I will return to the issue of Ukrainians who are not here as asylum seekers but are here under a temporary protection system. That in itself - distinguishing between different types of asylum seekers - is unacceptable. I deplore the language that is being used with regard to droves coming in, vetting and young men being dangerous. I share the concerns with regard to the problems experienced by communities because hotels are being taken and there are not enough services. Turning on vulnerable people, and asylum seekers are the most vulnerable people who are fleeing persecution and violations of human rights to seek asylum in our country, and equating asylum with dangerous people is most unacceptable. I ask those who are doing that to stop and to join with us in fighting and pressurising the Government to provide services for rural areas and stop taking over hotels and depriving communities of their use but not in the manner that it is being done now.

Since 2018, there have been at least 12 suspected arson attacks, which is most unacceptable, one of which occurred on New Year's Eve. A protest also occurred in Galway before Christmas at which horrible language was used to the effect that the inn is full. None of that is acceptable to me.

Let us look at the background against which someone comes here seeking asylum. The figures show that 28,892 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea. Last year alone, 3,041 people went missing in the Mediterranean. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, has reported that 110 million people have been displaced worldwide, of whom 43.3 million are children. The figures are just astronomical and they are going to get worse because we live in a world that looks at war as a way of solving problems when it creates problems. That is not to mention climate change.

Direct provision started in 1999 and 2000. We have had any number of reports telling us to stop direct provision as the system is not fit for purpose. It isolates people and leaves the way open for hate speech. The McMahon report was published in 2015. I do not know how many of its recommendations were ever implemented. Dr. McMahon did his best. Dr. Catherine Day's report was published in October 2020 and was followed by a White Paper on ending direct provision. Fair play to the Minister on that but it has not happened. That commitment was made well before the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, but nothing happened. We were to stop the obscene profits being made on the private provision of accommodation for vulnerable people. We did not do that. The Government failed to do what it said it would do, namely, stop direct provision, build not-for-profit centres and establish in parallel a system that would very swiftly deal with those seeking asylum. We did not do that either.

What we did do was open the doors to people fleeing from the illegal war in Ukraine but we created a two-tier system that is simply unacceptable. I agree with Deputy Mattie McGrath on one point. There was no written speech from the senior Minister, who spoke first, setting out the facts and figures or a time by which direct provision will be finished. We could work with him but none of that has been done today. People are speaking off the top of their heads. Then, we have the Afghan admission programme. Very few people have been taken from Afghanistan despite the horrors we have seen.

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