Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputy McDonald.

Direct provision is a blight on this State. The notion that the needs of people at their most vulnerable could be met by accommodating them in cramped, unsafe and crowded conditions is a disgrace. Asylum seekers are forced to live on €19.10 per week while awaiting a decision by the State on whether they are allowed to stay in Ireland. Direct provision is meant to provide for the welfare needs of asylum seekers and their families but it does not.

The Government participates in all EU directives on asylum except for Directive 2003/9/EC, also known as the receptive directive. If it abided by the directive, the State would have to permit asylum seekers to participate in the labour market. The refusal to do this has left many families in limbo, relying solely on the State's allowance of €19.10 per adult per week. It also provides a measly €9.60 a week for each child living in these horrendous conditions. What child can be cared for, fed or sent to school on €9.60 a week? The cost of raising a child in Ireland is by no means cheap and a child's well-being, both physical and mental, is not cheap. Securing a decent future for a child is also not cheap. Why then has the Government found it fit to expect parents of children in direct provision to provide for their needs, care for them and carve out opportunities for their future on €9.60 a week? This is unacceptable, wrong and shameful.

Most asylum seekers spend three years in direct provision. A large number have been waiting for seven years or more. Children have been born in these centres and they have lived their entire lives in the system. Their rights have been infringed upon by a State that has no positive history when it comes to the protection of children under its care. The Minister for Education and Skills recently said that children living in direct provision accommodation are being denied a "normal family life" and direct provision accommodation is "not a good system". She also noted her concern regarding access to education for children living in direct provision. Children seeking asylum are entitled to attend primary and secondary school but because they do not qualify for free fees, they cannot access third level education. This means that teenagers who complete their leaving certificate are unable to progress to college, which is shameful.

Why then, if the deplorable insufficiency of this system is recognised by a Minister, does the Government not act immediately to end it? The State has a duty of care to everyone living here. According to the Refugee Council of Ireland, RCI, approximately 2,000 children live in direct provision centres. That's 2,000 children whose basic needs are not being met, who are being failed by the State and whose families were forced to flee war, famine, risk of death or severe punishment and who came here seeking a better, safer life. Recently, 300 residents at the Kinsale Road reception and accommodation centre on the outskirts of Cork city organised ten days of protest seeking an end to this inhumane system. Their voices join a chorus of many and it is time the Government listened. One woman had been in the centre for nine years and was awaiting a decision on her status. She has two young children. This is horrific but this is only one case that acts to highlight the many others.

Direct provision centres deny people the right to prepare food for themselves and their children. Access to food is a basic human right. Food is not just a form of sustenance, as every culture has a different way of eating and of preparing different varieties of food. It is a form of cultural identity and expression. Why are people in direct provision denied the right to prepare their own food, to eat fresh, healthy food and to pass recipes onto their children? Instead they must resort to buying cheap, ready to eat foods such as bread or biscuits, which is shocking. If the Government is going to force people to live in these conditions, the least they could be given is an opportunity to cook. Surely it costs more to contract a company to cook this food. This is just a further degradation of the thousands of people being failed daily by the State.

Cases of young people displaying signs of inappropriate sexualised behaviour, of parents being hospitalised with mental health problems, of women forced into prostitution and of single parent families having to share rooms with total strangers have all been reported to social services. As someone elected to represent my constituents in this Chamber, I am appalled and I am clearly not the only one. Ministers and backbenchers must see these cases and recoil in horror. They have the responsibility to change it. This is State sponsored social exclusion and poverty and the Government must act now. Direct provision should end and vulnerable children should be protected. The Government parties should not allow for this to be the scandal for which future Governments will be forced to apologise. Already, this may prove to be too late.

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