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

On the working group, people are in politics if they want to achieve things. If they believe something is wrong and must be remedied, fixed or reformed, the job is to find some way to do it. People in the working group have been working incredibly hard and have been campaigning on the issue for quite some time, as have politicians in the House. I give credit to some sections of the media. We can be critical of them in the political system but I have great respect for a number of campaigning journalists. They have given the human dimension and stories behind the reality of direct provision. How do we come to a conclusion? What is the best way of advancing the cause of those within direct provision sectors who want a life? The determination of Government was to assemble a group of people who are experts in the field. We could have been accused of having a working group made up of people who have a particular perspective but we invited people who know the system inside out from the advocacy point of view and asked them to play their part in finding a solution. This involves people who are campaigners on the asylum system, the protection system, campaigners for children, academics, people with a trade union background and those with a history of finding solutions to real problems. I want conclusion brought to their deliberations but nothing is ever simple in life. I wish it were so. In trying to find a solution, we must find something that will last and work. We have inherited something I cannot stand over and I have made my language as clear and forthright as I can. I am quite sure people in the Department of Justice and Equality do not like me saying things with such forthright language because it is a system they have been trying to deal with over a period of time.

What is more important than my position or the positions of those on the working group, is what will happen when that report is published and how it will affect the lives of people in the system. I go to these centres and see the children there, and I consider their lives and futures. I meet people, the same age as myself, who have literally been broken by the system. I met a man in Limerick who was in a bad way when he got here, but the system we have has compounded his misery.

I see children who do not have the basic family-based type of modelling for food preparation that every other child takes for granted. It is very much a human reaction to a system. It is not a black and white report. We are dealing with human beings and their aspirations and dreams, which we have in our hands. So what do we do with that? We are charged with that awesome responsibility. The best thing to do is to get in with like-minded people who are charged with looking after the system, to try to find a better one.

The Deputy may have already rejected what the working group is doing. He may have already rejected what the report says, even before he sees it, but I will not do so because I trust the people who are doing the work.