The following motion was moved by Deputy Thomas Pringle on Tuesday, 30 September 2014:That Dáil Éireann:notes:— 2014 marks the 14th year of the existence of the Direct Provision system in Ireland; — over 4,300 asylum seekers are currently residing in the 34 Direct Provision centres in the State, some of whom have been living in these centres for up to and above 10 years; and — that more than one third of these residents are children who have spent a great deal of their lives, or their entire lives in these centres, which is having a negative impact on their safety and development;acknowledges:— that the Direct Provision system is an ineffective and costly system that is not fit for purpose; — concerns raised by the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding the ‘prolonged accommodation of asylum seekers in Direct Provision centres which is not conducive to family life’; — concerns raised by the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection in relation to the detrimental effect of Direct Provision accommodation on children and on parents’ ability to provide adequate care; — the social injustice of denying children residing in Direct Provision centres the opportunity to progress to third-level education; — that the personal allowances of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child per week are wholly inadequate to address the cost of living; — that the proposed Protection Bill providing for a single application procedure for the investigation of all grounds for protection, in itself, will not benefit those who have already begun the process of applying for asylum in Ireland; and — the Minister for Justice and Equality’s pending establishment of a Direct Provision working group to improve the current system is unnecessary considering the plethora of information available for the Government to act now and provide an alternative system; andcalls on the Government to:— abolish the Direct Provision system and introduce a legislative framework for specialised reception centres operating as ‘one-stop-shops’ for newly arrived protection applicants, providing access to the necessary services for the identification and assessment of needs; — provide appropriate self-catering accommodation which respects family life in a system that embodies the best interests of the child, as well as identifying and properly supporting individuals with special needs and vulnerabilities; — ensure the availability of early legal advice and independent complaints and inspection mechanisms; — provide for the transfer to independent living within six months if a decision on a person’s status has not been reached by then; — lift the prohibition on employment to allow residents of Direct Provision centres to work within six months if a decision on a person’s status has not been reached by then, to enable them to be actively participative in society, giving them a sense of worth and purpose in their daily lives which is a basic need of every human being; — introduce a strategy for implementation of the new system with a clearly defined timeframe to adapt to a reformed system of accommodation for asylum seekers; and — introduce a mechanism that allows asylum seekers that have already begun the process of applying for asylum in Ireland, and who are therefore unable to avail of the single procedure, to be fast-tracked to ensure no further unnecessary delays ensue.

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