Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions

Direct Provision: Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality

4:00 pm

Photo of Aodhán Ó RíordáinAodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will give my initial response to that. I do not know if Mr. Dowling or Mr. Kelly want to come in on that. On the people who are still in direct provision when they do not have to be there, I think there is a challenge for us in the future to find a step-down facility or a halfway situation because I think it would be unreasonable to expect somebody to go from a long period of living in a direct provision centre to trying to access essential services such as housing or social protection and not to have some kind of halfway situation. I do not know what that would look like but certainly the figures would suggest that people are finding it difficult to transition from direct provision into community living or independent living and it is their own decision to stay within direct provision. Certainly it is a challenge for us to find a resolution to that. I assume in the most recent past that the housing issue generally in the country was part of the problem. Does Mr. Dowling want to provide more context to that?

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