Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Before we finish I want to refer to a comment made by the Minister in his opening contribution. He highlighted the commitment in the programme for Government both to end direct provision and bring in a regularisation scheme for undocumented migrants. I know that this is something that he has worked for a long number of years and it is something that I have had an interest in for a long number of years. I compliment him on his work to progress this particular issue.

I hope that over the lifetime of this Government, we will see the end of direct provision and we will put a scheme in place to ensure we do not have undocumented migrant workers in this country. St. Patrick's Day was last week. Up to 50,000 Irish people are undocumented in the United States. We have a cohort of people here who are contributing to our society and economy, yet do not have legal status. To return to the point made earlier about community welfare officers, if these people fall on hard times, the only people they can turn to, and who have been quite helpful in some previous cases, are community welfare officers. These people have been paying tax and PRSI in many instances but because they do not have legal status, they cannot avail of the safety net that is available to every other worker in this country. I acknowledge the role the Minister of State has played to date in that respect and I look forward to working with him and his colleagues in government to achieve both of those aims.

I thank the Minister of State and his official for engaging with the committee. They have made a comprehensive contribution to addressing many of the issues we raised. He has given a commitment to Deputy Ó Cuív on RAPID areas and the committee will engage with his officials on that. There is also an opportunity to assist him in the area of food poverty, on which there is a lack of co-ordination. This issue straddles the two elements of the committee's remit. We are willing to work with the Minister of State in a co-operative manner to try to progress that issue on behalf of all our citizens. I thank him and his officials for their time.

The joint committee will meet on Wednesday, 31 March in private session on the Microsoft Teams platform. I thank viewers who tuned into Oireachtas TV to watch this meeting.