Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate everyone's gratitude for the presentation. It has been a tough meeting. I have been a member of this committee for almost three years and Mr. Sibanda made probably one of the most insightful and thoughtful contributions I have heard to it. To then see him in the condition he is in now and to hear some of these stories is a bit of a wake-up call and a dose of reality for us. My view on direct provision is not much good to the witnesses because they are living it and they articulated the experience of that vividly today.

I am not as kind as my colleague, Senator Black. The Government party is not represented here today because it does not care. It knows full well what the situation is in direct provision because this is not the first meeting about this. These meetings, presentations and engagements have happened consistently over a long number of years and, therefore, we need to consider a dose of unfortunate reality as we move forward collectively. There are people in society and in government who think it is okay to lock people away in direct provision, who put the interests of private companies ahead of human beings and who think the culture that prevailed, as Senator Black said, during the period of the Magdalen laundries is okay now because we are not doing this to Irish people, even though the same Government oversees children who are born here sleeping in hotel rooms.

That is a culture we have to acknowledge before we hopefully get to the stage where direct provision is abolished. That is a sad and unfortunate fact of Irish life that we need to challenge. The committee's report could and probably should comprise the transcript of this meeting. That is not to take away from any other contributors but the most important people in all of this who need to be heard are those living in direct provision.

The Chairman, whom Senator Black rightly acknowledged we are lucky to have in this regard, will lead a delegation from the committee to visit a number of direct provision centres next month. I do not mean to be facetious about this but I remember when inspectors visited my school we were told to buck up our ideas, tidy up and put on a good show, so I ask the witnesses to be as frank as they can and to tell us what we should look out for and what questions we should ask. I am sure their contributions will inform those of us who are going on that trip. If there are any specifics that we should look out for and ask about on the day then the witnesses can be sure and certain that we will ask them but if there is anything beyond what they have said this morning, please let us know.

I do not want to come across as too negative. I always go in hope. One of the staff in my office always says to light a candle as opposed to curse the dark. We can get to a point where we get rid of this stain on society. This is how we are treating people as a nation of emigrants for generations, who went all over the world seeking refuge and seeking support. It is a great shame and the message from this meeting is that when people are trying to exploit fear, ignorance and hatred, we are duty bound to help to inform people about what our fellow human beings are going through and to shine a light on what is happening in direct provision.

I am grateful to the witnesses for taking the opportunity to come here. I wish we could do more and I wish I could give them the answer today. Members will do their best. We are up against it and the witnesses are up against it to address a political culture that thinks it is okay to do this. That is the greatest shame.