Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I applaud the Minister of State's faith. However, faith is one thing but there should be a determination to achieve certain results which I do not think are open for discussion. That is the point I am making. Some things are open for discussion, but others are not. I do not see how we can justify the system the Minister of State has inherited. In fact, he has clearly said we cannot justify it and that something must be done about it. I have not heard anybody put forward a credible argument in this regard, however. I know what the Minister of State thinks and what he has expressed in the past.

People in the system deserve the right to work. The working group could legitimately examine how that could be made to happen. The Minister of State and his Government colleagues have to say that the end game, which will happen soon, is that asylum seekers will be allowed to work. It is unacceptable, wrong, inhuman and degrading that they should be incarcerated for any substantial length of time in a situation where they are denied that basic right.

What is the bottom line? What are the red lines that are not negotiable? It is the Minister of State's job to set them out. How long do people have to be in the system before they are allowed to work? We could debate that straight away, but the Minister of State might have an argument for doing so in six months. There have to be certain bottom lines. Children should not be put in situations where they could have inappropriate sexual contact. Families must have proper cooking facilities, also. These things should be clearly set out.