David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The direct provision system has changed a great deal in recent years. I invite colleagues to look at the changes that have been made. We continue to change, improve and upgrade the area. There is a fair bit of pressure due to the increase in people looking for international protection, and therefore we have to find accommodation for them. When someone comes into Dublin Airport tonight seeking asylum, we are obliged to process that claim and to ask the person if he or she needs accommodation and, if he or she does not have accommodation, we are obliged to provide it. A small number of people can stay with friends and relations already in Ireland, and a small number do, but the vast majority cannot. They are guaranteed a bed that night along with a shower, food, security, medical care and whatever else they need. That is what they are provided with immediately. We have streamlined the application process.

Part of the criticism of the system was that people were too long in the process. As the Deputy knows, there were three different ways by which people could apply. We have now made a single application procedure to try to speed that up and for people to have a final decision sooner. The Ombudsman and Ombudsman for Children now go to the centres freely at any time they wish. They can listen to people, take complaints and engage with them so they know how to make complaints. Both of those independent agencies can and do make recommendations based on the complaints they receive. We work very closely with them, encourage and welcome their work and are anxious to hear from them. We are also developing a new set of standards for the centres which we are undertaking with NGOs which are having a big input. We have also put additional staffing resources into the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, to try to speed up the application process as best we can. Much has been done. Many of the centres have teenage rooms and many centres have self-catering facilities, so they have changed.

I will return briefly to the private community sponsorship model with which I am keen for communities throughout the country to engage. If colleagues can activate a community to support a family in that way, we will work with them. The idea is that someone could come from the airport and go directly to the community. That is what I saw in operation in Canada and in the UK.

Direct provision has been criticised over the years and it has been likened to open prisons and so on, which is most unfair. People can come and go as they wish. No one is incarcerated at all and there is no signing in or out, for instance. Staff in the centres are trained. If colleagues are aware of another model elsewhere that works better, they should tell me what it is. They should see me or send me details in writing of the better system and how it would work, bearing in mind the current constraints and that everyone who arrives in Ireland seeking asylum is guaranteed accommodation that night.