Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

Based on what officials told me last week, the number of unaccompanied children coming into this jurisdiction is relatively low, significantly fewer than 100 per year. A significant percentage of these children disappear from HSE accommodation.

There is no provision to improve the protection of separated children. Given the concerns with the existing system, this is a fundamental problem with this Bill. Nor is there specific provision for trafficked children. Examples in Sweden and Holland illustrate how children come in unaccompanied under the asylum process, disappear from accommodation centres and are trafficked into the sex industry in other countries of the EU.

Another fundamental weakness is the provision in the legislation allowing the immigration officer to decide which adult will take responsibility for unaccompanied children. This area must be examined. The current policy of handing over children to an organisation that has already failed more than 300 children in recent years is unacceptable. Through his officials, I asked the Minister to provide some figures on this issue but the Department could not do so. It is appalling that the Department does not have a handle on the issue. We cannot continue to brush this under the carpet.

It is fundamentally important that resources are provided for education in the interests of integration. The language supports available in primary and post-primary schools are inadequate to meet the needs of migrant students. This forces teachers to slow the pace of education in the class because migrant children are not up to speed with basic English. That is to the detriment of Irish pupils.

The lack of capitation grants for migrant children, especially those of asylum applicants, is forcing schools to fund extra curricular activities or cancel them due to the financial pressures placed on the school. An additional financial pressure has now been placed on the school in respect of water charges. This has a direct impact on all children, migrants and Irish children.

The failure of the Department and the Government to provide the most basic information on the background and traditions of migrant pupils leads to a lack of understanding of individual students. That issue is not solely a problem with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. There are examples in the west of asylum and protected children arriving into school on 1 September from asylum accommodation centres, with no information provided for the schools on the background, nationality or traditions of the children. No resources are provided for the schools in respect of language support or additional support for the extra curricular activities of asylum children.

Some schools bring their pupils swimming on a weekly basis but the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform will not provide funding for that. The matter is passed on to the local community welfare officer. No specific provision is made for trips to this House or other parts of the country. As a result, Irish children are being discriminated against because the school does not have the resources to fund asylum children. The policy of the school is that no children will go unless all children go. This is correct because we do not want further discrimination in our schools.

Education is a basic right. Over the next five years we will need an extra 2,300 additional classrooms to deal with the additional numbers attending primary school, estimated to be just under 60,000. It is estimated that there are 31,000 migrant children in the primary system alone.

The Government policy is to stop resources being allocated to extensions and new buildings in favour of dealing with the explosion of population in the vicinity of Dublin and other population centres. This discriminates against rural communities, in favour of providing resources in the Dublin region. Classrooms are not there at present as a result of the lack of planning by the Government and the Department of Education and Science to meet these needs. I spoke to the Minister in his previous role as Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science about Cornafulla national school. Sanction was approved for the spending of €2.5 million and, while the commitment was given by the Department of Education and Science, the project could not go ahead because the Department would not give the final green light. That funding will be spent in the Dublin region.

The current system of allocating language support teachers is not serving the interests of children. School principals at primary and secondary level have told me the support from the Department is not meeting the key issue of the language deficit. Children are lost in the school setting unless children of all nationalities can communicate and understand.

We must tackle deficiencies in the education system and adult literacy, specifically the literacy of our Irish citizens and English fluency of the migrants coming here. It is estimated that one quarter of people attending adult literacy programmes are from non-English speaking countries and are seeking to improve their English. That is not benefiting Irish citizens who need to increase their language and literacy skills, nor is it benefiting migrants in the long run. There is an onus on employers and State agencies to address English proficiency.

With regard to recent crime figures, the issue of people on the run has hit the headlines today. Last year there was an increase in serious crime. It was another record-breaking year, with the highest number of murders in the history of the State. Immigration is having some impact on it but we do not know what that impact is. Last Sunday, statistics were published that 30% of those in Irish prisons in 2006 were from outside Ireland. It is important that we lay down a clear marker. The Bill indicates that this matter will be examined, but it is vague. It is important that the Garda Síochána and the Department of Social and Family Affairs have adequate resources to screen people entering the country. There is need for greater co-operation between both arms of the State. The Minister's officials compiled examples of abuse of the social welfare system where people got tens of thousands of euro illegally. There needs to be co-ordination between the Garda National Immigration Bureau, our immigration service and the Department of Social and Family Affairs to ensure these abuses are exposed and that we have a more watertight system of issuing PPS numbers. Someone who has a conviction for a serious crime should be refused entry. If someone is convicted of a serious crime in this jurisdiction, he or she should be deported once the sentence has been served. It is important that we elaborate on this provision in the legislation.

Last Sunday week a serious road traffic accident occurred in my parish in which two Polish brothers were killed. Anyone who has personal experience of road traffic accidents and fatalities cannot but have huge sympathy for the family of those two individuals. There is a responsibility on us to ensure that immigrants are aware of the rules of the road and that information on them is provided clearly and concisely in their own language. It is also important that we have more visible signage informing people they must drive on the left-hand side of the road.

It is vital that we deal with the penalty points issue. One quarter of all penalty points notifications cannot be issued because they are attached to licences from outside this jurisdiction. We should establish a parallel record of a driver's behaviour to bring out-of-state licences under the jurisdiction of the courts. We should keep a record of these licences and the penalty points attached to them and people should be taken off the road when they reach the threshold of 12 penalty points. There is no legal difficulty in doing this and it would ensure that everyone in this country comes under the jurisdiction of the penalty points system.

My colleague, Deputy Gilmore, highlighted the issue yesterday of worker exploitation and the fact that even though the Government committed itself last December to have 90 labour inspectors carrying out inspections there are still only 50 inspectors. In 2007, 1,500 fewer inspections were carried out. It is important, both for Irish people and for immigrants that the law is not abused and that immigrants are given the same entitlements as Irish citizens.

The Bill provides for limited access to benefits and services provided by a Minister, a local authority and the Health Service Executive. The Employment Appeals Tribunal should be included in that provision. I am concerned that medical personnel working in the HSE will be forced to assume the role of immigration officers, as is the case with regard to the marriage provision in section 123.

I wish to bring to the Minister's attention a report in The Connacht Tribune of last week concerning an Athenry man who died in Boston after becoming ill. He declined medical attention for fear of being deported. We do not want to see a repeat of that in this jurisdiction. It is important that those protections are put in place.

I urge the Minister to end the inconsistencies in family reunification policies for Irish and other EU citizens living here; that we simplify and clarify the paths to permanent residency; introduce some degree of immigrant selection to ensure a positive contribution to the economy and social cohesion; ensure we have proactive anti-discrimination campaigns with the social partners; introduce proactive integration policies through the education system and the provision of English language training; and establish strong enforcement of policies, including the active deportation of people who are not benefiting Irish society. I look forward to dealing with these issues on Committee Stage.

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