Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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I thank all of the witnesses. This is the first of a series of meetings we will have on this topic. There will be another meeting next week and further meetings will be scheduled. It will be an ongoing debate and I am sure the witnesses will tune in to it. I agree with much of what Ms Crickley said about looking for solutions. There is a lot in the witnesses' opening statements and contributions and in the briefing papers provided. Hopefully we will be able to pass those along to the relevant Department. That Department has a huge amount to deal with and is probably struggling a little with that. Hopefully this discussion will be helpful and we can start to look at how we can broaden it out.

Direct provision has been in existence for a long time and many people have campaigned for it to be changed. If anything positive is to emerge from this, maybe it will be to push that whole debate forward because it is something we need to change. I agree with much of what was said about social media. I could write a book on how toxic and negative it is. It just feeds into all of the misinformation. If something is posted up 100 times, it becomes fact without anyone ever checking it. It is so frustrating that social media companies are still sitting back and sitting on the fence as if they have absolutely no role to play. All of that feeds into the misinformation. A leaflet was mentioned and it turned out that clarification could be provided that there was no truth in it.

There is a huge amount of work to do and this committee is a good forum for doing it. We have already dealt with a large number of issues. Hopefully, going forward we will be able to feed all of this work and the assistance the witnesses have provided into the Department. I thank them again and I also thank all the groups and individuals they represent.

I propose that we publish the opening statements on the Oireachtas website. Is that agreed? Agreed.