Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reject Deputy Pringle's allegation that direct provision is institutionalised racism. Direct provision provides accommodation to individuals, children and families who claim asylum in this country. Without direct provision they would have no accommodation. Direct provision provides better accommodation than is provided in many other EU member states. It provides not only accommodation but subsistence and additional benefits. Direct provision ensures people have accommodation that is necessary pending their asylum applications being dealt with. I would much prefer if these applications were dealt with much faster.

One of the issues is that we have a system whereby one first applies for asylum and if that fails one applies for leave to remain, and if that too fails one might, on humanitarian grounds, be asked to stay. The process is too long and a substantial proportion of those in direct provision are people who have been denied asylum, because it has been determined that they are not in need of asylum but are economic migrants who are challenging those conclusions in the courts by taking judicial review cases. There are more than 1,000 such cases. I want to introduce legislation which allows all these decisions to be made in the first instance without the current long delays, allows those who are genuinely entitled to asylum to stay in our country and be part of the overall community, and allows the State to remove from the country those economic migrants who seek to get around visa and immigration requirements.

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