Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not hear the report but I am not surprised to hear that view. Let us consider what direct provision and emergency accommodation for people coming to our country are about. This is about people coming from what can be a highly traumatic environment and fleeing oppression to another country. We can all imagine the trauma of that. We can only begin to imagine the trauma of that for a child. It is fair to say all of us are grappling with finding the right solutions from a housing and accommodation point of view. I note Mr. Justice McMahon's documents proposing significant reform to direct provision.

We are committed to making those improvements. We have to take, and we are taking, a whole-of-government approach to this. The job of dealing with immigration, refugees and direct provision does not fall solely to the Department of Justice and Equality. We had a Cabinet committee meeting on this earlier this week. My Department is putting in health supports as well. That is important.

We have a major issue that we have to nip in the bud. It relates to the creeping racism in our political debates around this. I am not going to get into specific examples but I believe we all need to call it out. Whoever is in government will face this challenge. The Department of Justice and Equality is doing an excellent job on behalf of Irish citizens in responding to Ireland's international obligations to take in, support and give céad míle fáilte to people fleeing oppression. That means all our communities providing support. It means all of us providing enough resources and supports for those communities. My Department will not be found wanting in that regard.

Is direct provision the ideal model? Absolutely not, but the Deputy and I need to be able to answer the question of what the ideal model is. In the midst of a housing shortage we need to be realistic. We need to make our direct provision far better. We need to implement the recommendations of the McMahon report and that is what we are doing. My Department and the HSE need put in place the wraparound services and that is what we are doing.