Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentations. My head is spinning. I am blown away by the reality of the situation. I knew it was bad, but I was not aware of how horrendous it is. It is important that I repeat something Mr. Mfaco said at the end of his presentation. I hope it is okay for me to do so. He stated:

We are human beings like all of you. All we ask is that we be treated as such. The very fact that people have to ask the Government to treat them humanely should shame all of you.

I feel absolutely devastated by what I have heard. I am ashamed that I live in this country. I am ashamed by the way our Government is treating people in direct provision. There is no representation here today from our Government. It is probably too hard from them to hear what the reality is. We do not know. I am grateful that the witnesses are here today because we need to hear the reality of what it is like to live in direct provision. I am shaking with anger. I am saddened to hear that in this day and age, people are going through the experiences that have been described. When we talk about the Magdalen laundries, we say it was terrible and ask how these things happened. It is going on here today. That is the reality. When I spoke last week to a man from the US, he thanked God that the abuses which happened years ago in the Magdalen laundries have come to an end, but I told him that abuses are continuing. I informed him about the case of a woman who was living in a direct provision centre in the midlands. When she was nine months' pregnant she went into labour, but she had no money to get a taxi so she had to walk to the hospital. That is what is going on in our country today. The man to whom I was speaking burst into tears and cried when he heard this story. What the hell is going on?

In this country, we do not treat animals in the way people in direct provision are being treated.

I have taken down many notes here and I want to touch on a couple of points, if that is all right with the Chairman. A story was told here last week on the right to work and it had an impact on me. A man in direct provision, with his wife and three children, was asked by one of those who presented here last week about how he was getting on with his legal status. He replied that he did not care about his legal status at this time and that all he wants to do is work. He stated that all he wants to do is get up in the morning, go out to work, come back and tell his children that he went to work that day. Moreover, he said that he does not even want to get paid for it. He just asked to be given his dignity. Deputies Jack Chambers and O'Callaghan touched on it today but that is why we need to see an effective right to work. It is vital.

There is no doubt but that we need to get rid of direct provision. This report is so important. My recommendation would be to get rid of direct provision and treat people with respect and dignity. I cannot even imagine what it is like for those children. These people are coming from trauma. I work in an area of trauma in a different field but I know what trauma does to people. I see its impact. As for them coming here from a traumatic situation where people are being tortured, sexually violated and sexually abused, only to be treated with such disrespect and absence of dignity, I do not know to where our humanity has gone.

I am sorry, but I need to be able to say this because what I am hearing today is so upsetting. Even though I was aware it was bad, I did not realise it was so bad. One must present a card for an ironing board. The point that private companies operate these centres frustrates me. Last year, we paid more than €70 million to private firms operating direct provision centres and yet, where one wants to cook one's own food, which is a basic human right, one has to go to a shop to buy it.

I seek the witnesses' thoughts on the integration piece. I apologise, as I am upset by hearing everything, but I wish to hear their thoughts on efforts to help asylum seekers integrate into Irish society. There are a few points I wrote down; I hope this is okay. First, although we have an official Government migrant integration strategy, asylum seekers are excluded from it. They simply are not mentioned. This suggests that while the State will actively try to help integrate migrant EU workers, for example, I gather I would be right in stating this is not the case with asylum seekers.

Second, from reading about the design of the direct provision system, it seems that there is almost a fear of genuine integration running through the heart of the rules. The logic seems to be that if we let people put down roots to work and embed into the committee, it would be harder were their application to be ultimately refused and, therefore, many in the centres live at a physical and social distance from local communities. Can we hear about those experiences?

I also want to hear about their experiences on the right to work because that is really important, and a little more on the importance of having cooking facilities, which is a basic human right. Many direct provision centres still do not have those facilities.