Ms Donnah Vuma:

I find it shocking that people have said there have been improvements or that the recommendations have been implemented when people continue to live in a state of forced poverty. One of my biggest issues with the working group report is that no one came here looking for comfort, as Mr. Mfaco said. We are not looking to be comfortable in direct provision. We do not want the direct provision system reformed or made comfortable. Many of us came here to seek protection. We did not unpack our experiences, skills or expertise in the countries we left. We came here with them. That means we are able to work. We are capable and qualified to do so. All we want is to be allowed to work so that we can provide for our families. As I have already mentioned, I am a mother of three. Unfortunately, I have been living in this system for five years and it was only yesterday that I received a decision on my case. It is finally out of the High Court to which I appealed the decision that was made on my original application for refugee status. It is still unclear what is happening there because I have no contact with my solicitor. I have not been updated as to what it means that the case was successful in the High Court. That is a major problem which many of us face. We do not have proper legal advice. While legal aid is available in principle, one may only get to see one's solicitor once on the day before an interview.

It is a great challenge to raise a children in direct provision on an allowance, which used to be just €19.10. I cannot begin to explain to the committee the challenge of having to save money from a €19 payment to meet the expenses associated with raising children. My eldest child is in her third year of secondary school but I take the committee back two years to when she started in first year. The initial cost of starting school was approximately €900. I had no idea where that €900 was going to come from when I was on an allowance of €19.10. To try to meet that €900 expense, let alone the expenses for my two other children, I had to save money from that €19.10 to supplement the €150 back-to-school payment the State gives everyone. My greatest problem with that is the limitations it imposes on the development of children. They cannot participate in extracurricular activities. Since my children have been in the school system here, they have never been able to take part in extracurricular activities.

I would not be able to pay for my children to do so in any case out of the €38.80 allowance to which I am restricted because I do not have the right to work.

The same issue arises for children in secondary school. As an example, my daughter will be going into transition year in September, which includes a school trip next January with an option to go either on an exchange programme to the United States or to Austria on a ski trip. This is a trip in which everybody in her class is partaking. She knows she has a passport because we got it when we came to Ireland, although we had to give up those documents at our point of arrival when we sought asylum. How do I go about explaining to my child that she cannot take part in an activity that might have a huge impact on the rest of her life and in which all her peers will be able to participate? This is one of the restrictions and barriers we face as parents. It is only a miracle that will allow my child to go on the trip given that it costs €960. While I do not have the right to work, how am I supposed to be able to meet that type of expense?

I am taking the opportunity to highlight the most serious issues, but I also want to give the committee examples of the simple oppression we face in the centres on a daily basis. I had a recent incident where I needed an extra roll of tissue. We are given basic toiletries, including tissue, toothpaste and shower gel, at our centre in Knockalisheen, but it happened on this day that we ran out of tissue. As embarrassing and humiliating as it is to have say this at the committee, I was in the bathroom when I realised there was no tissue. I called my 12 year old daughter and asked her to run down to reception to get a new roll. She did so and was mocked by the two security staff members on duty who told her to go back and get her mother to come out of the bathroom and fetch the tissue herself. Apparently the manager had told them they were not allowed to give tissue to children. What is wrong with giving a toilet roll to a 12 year old?

Another incident I wish to highlight is one of which members may already be aware. My son was sick one night and needed a simple slice of bread and some milk. I am not allowed to cook for my children or have food in my room. Previously, I was able to access these things but on this particular day, the manager had decided to impose a new rule. I went to reception at 1 a.m. in desperate need of a slice of bread and milk to help my sickly child, but I was denied it. The Minister subsequently requested that an inquiry to be made into what happened, as a result of which some sort of apology was given. I do not know whether it was directed to me, but some kind of apology happened and the staff were supposed to receive training on the issue. I am not sure whether that training was about how to treat people humanely and with more respect but, as I said, I have now had a situation where my child was denied tissue and I was told to come out of the bathroom and fetch it myself.

That raises a serious question about the type of people, communities and society the direct provision system is shaping for the future. If I am put in that centre on an allowance of €38.80 per week, I am being taught how to be dependent on the system, and I am teaching my children the same. I am teaching them how to be helpless. By the time I move out of that centre and am on a social welfare payment of €180 per week, there is no way I will want to move myself out and find work. It will be a promotion for me to go from €38.80 to €180 per week. The process is automatically teaching my children the same system of dependency. It is a very dangerous situation that is being created.

Children in direct provision are not even allowed to attend a school of their choice but are instead confined either to the schools in the local area or a school to which they are referred by the centre manager. My child goes to a school that is a bit out of the way for where we live, being some 20 km away, but it is the school to which her peers from primary school chose to go and so she wanted to go there. The bus that takes her to school stops less than 1 km from the centre. The first bus out of the centre to take children to school is at 8 a.m. but my daughter needs to be at the bus stop at 7.45 a.m. I have asked the centre management many times to make an adjustment, which would not be solely for my child but also for the few other children who need an earlier bus service. Our request has been denied repeatedly. This means that from my €38.80 allowance, I have to pay a lady €40 every week to take my daughter to the bus stop in the morning and bring her back to the centre in the afternoon. I do not know how we are expected to survive under those conditions.

The same teenaged daughter has no idea how to boil an egg. For the five years that I have lived in direct provision, my children have not known the taste of my cooking and are subjected only to what is served in the canteen. My nine year old eats rice and gravy on a daily basis, as Mr. Mfaco, who sees him in the canteen, would be able to confirm. I am sure my son is the one who asked for a second doughnut and was refused. It is the one thing he likes. Otherwise he is on a diet of rice and gravy endlessly because it is the only thing he can stand to eat. That is not a normal situation and not the way that any child should be growing up. It would not be acceptable to Irish people, Irish communities or Irish society to take an Irish child and put him or her in that situation and subject him or her to growing up in those types of conditions.

We and others have stated over and over again that direct provision is not fit for purpose. We are not looking for comfort, as I said. We are just looking to live as normal human beings and to be able to contribute to the communities that have welcomed us in many situations. We are looking for the opportunity to give our children a better life than what they have experienced here and in our countries of origin. We just want that opportunity to have sanctuary and safety and to be able to live normal lives.