Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 26:

In page 19, to delete lines 19 and 20 and substitute the following:"(b) have access to the labour market no later than 9 months from the date when the application for international protection was lodged if a first instance decision by the Tribunal has not been taken and the delay cannot be attributed to the applicant,".

I will speak to amendments Nos. 26 and 102. Section 16 outlines the conditions that attach to a permission granted to a protection applicant while the applicant remains in the State. Section 16(3)(b) places an outright prohibition on the protection applicants seeking, entering or being in employment. Ireland is now the only country in the European Union, bar Lithuania, that has a blanket ban on protection applicants entering the workplace. The impact of this on protection applicants is well documented by the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, NASC, protection applicants and other non-governmental organisations in the field. It has formed part of the public discourse on our protection system in recent months, with the lifting of the ban receiving wide public support

Importantly, the working group on the protection process in direct provision recommended that protection applicants be granted the right to work if a decision on their application was not received within nine months. NASC is deeply concerned that despite this, the prohibition on the right to work is restated in the current draft Bill. It also recommends in the strongest possible terms that protection applicants should be given access to the labour market, with section 16(3)(b) being removed and replaced with a provision from Article 5 of the reception conditions directive, granting qualified or limited access to the labour market.

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