Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman very much. I am very happy to be here. It is a tragedy that the Taoiseach did not call an election in November. With every passing day, the Government is becoming an even bigger joke - ramming legislation through to give the illusion that it is dealing with issues and, in so doing, probably leaving behind a legacy of disaster. It is reprehensible not only that the Bill does not end direct provision and deal with the continuing human rights violations but also that it facilitates a process of keeping people in direct provision and speeding up the deportation at the end of it.

The fact that so many organisations that gave their time to the process are objecting to it should be a wake-up call. The Government's own watchdog, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, is saying the Bill should not be passed without amendments dealing with the crucial issues relating to the rights of the child. The key organisations at the coalface are saying the Bill should be withdrawn. The Minister convened a working group to engage stakeholders in pre-legislative scrutiny on the Bill but has ignored all its recommendations. The recommendations were fully costed and agreed by consensus over eight months of deliberations with members of all relevant Government Departments, NGOs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, and experts in the field of asylum and refugee law. I do not understand why those recommendations have been ignored.

There is much more to direct provision than the speed at which applications are processed. The conditions in direct provision facilities have been roundly condemned by many of those who have been forced to live in them. We do not know the full cost to the taxpayer. When people asked the Minister what it cost, she was not able to tell the House due to fear of competitive scrutiny and because it was not in the public interest. The public will be very interested to know that many of the private companies which run direct provision centres are making a very nice, tidy profit from them. A company that owns a centre so awful the refugees called it "Guantanamo Bay" made €2.5 million in operating profit in 2014. As previous speakers stated, the Government rejected a range of amendments in the Seanad which would have improved the Bill. Presumably, the Minister will do the same in this House. This alone is a reason why the Bill should go no further.

The Bill relates to people whose lives have been devastated in their own countries, who have given testimonies such as the following:

I left Rwanda 20 years ago. I was a refugee in the Congo. I was not in a wheelchair in the Congo, I was shot and tortured there and became paralysed.

Another testimony is as follows:

In the last incident that led me to leave Zimbabwe and come here, we were taken to a farm. We were tortured to the extent that I was unconscious. I have scars and bruises all over my body. We were beaten [...] I left for my own safety.

The conditions these people are living in are absolutely disgraceful. One of the key reasons why people seek asylum is war and we are complicit in the creation of such situations by continuing to allow the US military to use Shannon Airport. Some 33 million refugees have been displaced by war. The two issues are linked.

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