Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact Deputy Thomas Pringle has brought this Private Members' motion to the Chamber. It should be made clear that Deputy Pringle brought this into the legislative process a year ago but did not have the opportunity to put it on the floor of the House until this week, so it is not just an issue of responding to the circumstances and the protests of asylum seekers who have come out in the community. I applaud them for doing that and for highlighting their plight and the despicable circumstances in which they are living.

It seems to be the case that despite abject apologies and expressions of shame about the inhumane treatment and incarceration in the industrial schools, the mental institutions, the Magdalen laundries, the mother and baby homes and the health service in regard to symphysiotomy, where the State outsourced its responsibilities to religious institutions and then forgot about them, we now have a repeat of the situation in direct provision centres for asylum seekers. The difference is that they have been outsourced to for-profit private companies. No wonder Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness has said it is a new scandal which will bring yet more international shame and yet another apology from the State.

Some 4,360 people, 1,700 of them children, are being forced to live in inhumane conditions of overcrowding, forbidden to cook their own food, with a family in one room with shared bathrooms, and people afraid to make complaints. It is an incredible situation for people to be living in this way in this country at this time. I listened yesterday to the story of the woman in Cork who protested that she was in the direct provision system for nine years with her two children, who have never seen their mother cook a family meal. It is an incredible situation. She has no idea when her application will be dealt with. In some ways it can be compared to internment without trial because people are in a situation where they do not know when their application will be processed or how long they will have to wait. It is like asking how long is a piece of string. They just do not know what is going to happen, and their children are in that situation as well.

These conditions are extremely detrimental to people's mental health and the healthy, rounded-out development of children. This is recognised by the Human Rights Council of the UN, which expressed concerns about the length of time people are in centres, the limits on freedom, the impediments to family life and the prohibition on working. The EU Commission on Racism and Intolerance has called for a complete review of the system by the special rapporteur on child protection, with all the organisations in Ireland concerned with civil liberties, migrant rights asylum seekers and so on. We know the system is not fit for purpose. The question is what to do about it and to act now.

The Minister of State said he has set up a working group, which is an excellent first step and all of the concerned groups are involved in that. He is not expecting the first report back until the end of the year, however, and in the meantime, these people are still in the same situation. I believe some of the suggestions Deputy Pringle has put forward for things that can be done immediately should be taken on board. For example, anyone in the system for more than six months should immediately be given the right to independent living, we should conform immediately with the norm across the EU by conceding the right to work after six months to those in direct provision, and we should establish independent complaints and inspection mechanisms. All centres should provide self-catering facilities, play space and study rooms for children, which are basic human rights for children. These are immediate measures which would greatly alleviate the present problems. In the longer term, we should move to specialised reception centres, operated on a not-for-profit basis, as recommended in the motion.

Many Deputies have made impassioned contributions about their direct dealings with people who are in the centres. We also have a huge housing crisis and we are talking about putting people into prefabs. It is just not on. There has to be a longer-term programme to deal with the long-term issues and immediate assistance put in place to deal with the immediate effects of homelessness and the direct provision situation.

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