Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I echo Deputy Mac Lochlainn in saying it is disappointing that this Bill is not only being rushed but it is not accompanied by other measures long wished for by asylum seekers and those who support them, chief of which are the granting of the right to work and the ending of the shame and scandal that is the direct provision system.

As when dealing with other legislation, despite the guillotining and short-circuiting of the proper legislative process surrounding this Bill, I got as many amendments in as I could.

If I had the time, I would have put in another one about an amnesty for all those who have been failed.

The Minister has pretty much acknowledged that the direct provision system and what has happened to asylum seekers to date in this State has been utterly unacceptable. If we acknowledge that, we should also look to compensate those who have suffered this through an amnesty for the people we failed in the direct provision system. There was a failure to give people the right to work, for example. It is something that should accompany this Bill, as it should also see the end of direct provision so as to allow people the right to work.

The spirit that should inform this Bill and all the measures the Minister needs to take in order to move from a failed, dysfunctional and, in some cases, scandalous, process is the presumption that anybody seeking asylum here could be one of the people fleeing the bombed out cities of Syria, who suffered torture or who has been in the most horrendous positions. The presumption should be of their bona fides as asylum seekers fleeing the worst possible scenarios rather than that they may not be legitimate asylum seekers, and that therefore it is right to essentially imprison them in the direct provision system or empower authorities to find excuses to refuse their asylum applications or have inordinate delays.

I welcome the single procedure, as most people do, but there is an absence of a proper legislative process in dealing with this Bill and accompanying measures, such as those proposed by the petitions committee. I commend Deputy MacLochlainn and the secretariat of the petitions committee on the huge amount of fantastic work on this. It is very disappointing that we are not simply dissolving or abolishing the direct provision system, putting in place the right for asylum seekers and refugees to work at a minimum of nine months. That is instead of being penned up in the scandalous system that is direct provision.

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