Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Committee on Public Petitions

Update on Direct Provision: The Ombudsman

Mr. Peter Tyndall:

I thank the Senator for the questions. We talked briefly about issues around employment and the big advantage it had offered to those people who were able to pursue employment. My office is specifically excluded from dealing with industrial relations matters and there is a separate mechanism through the Workplace Relations Commission for dealing with that. If we did get somebody raising that kind of concern with us, we would signpost them in the right direction. Perhaps Mr. Garvey or Ms Joyce want to come in on this, but I am not conscious of complaints specifically about centres preventing people from working, which was my understanding of the thrust of the Senator's complaint. Clearly, he may have some knowledge of that and we would be very interested in hearing more. However, I am not conscious of us having received complaints on that topic, although perhaps Mr. Garvey or Ms Joyce would have more on that.