Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to thank Mr. Bulelani Mfaco and Ms Tina Ndlovu. I am grateful to them for sharing the reasons they sought asylum. I think it is important because sometimes the debate around this issue neglects the fact that people have come here after fleeing persecution, oppression and violence. It can be forgotten that people have suffered from trauma that most of us present can only begin to imagine. Yet, the system is retraumatising people by putting them through what I believe to be a traumatic system. I agree with Mr. Henderson and the representatives from Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland that this system is failing the human rights of people and it needs to be replaced.

I want to put the question to the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland and the Irish Refugee Council representatives. Last week Mr. Justice Bryan MacMahon said to us that in his view, while it was far from perfect, the direct provision system had improved. I want to get the response of the representatives to that. Can they tell us about their experience of the Garda National Immigration Bureau and how that office conducts itself as well as the Garda generally? I am putting that question to both groups. I will have a final set of questions following that.