Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the statements on direct provision this morning. I worked with asylum seekers in Donegal town from 1999 to 2012 when the hostel there closed. I have seen at first hand the impact the direct provision system had on people in Donegal town. It was a totally male hostel. One could see the lack of motivation, the impact on people's mental health and the isolation that direct provision causes, even in a small town like Donegal town, when people are restricted from integrating.

We used to organise events and activities for the residents of the direct provision centre and because of the lack of motivation, the mental health issues and everything else, it was practically necessary to take people out of the centre to get them to attend the events or activities. There was absolutely no integration. Direct provision has never been about that. Anything the Department has said over the years about how it was encouraging integration was all lies. It was never what was intended.

I firmly believe in the ending of direct provision and I previously brought a motion before the House to that end in 2014. I firmly believe that the system of direct provision should be ended and should be ended immediately. It would actually be cheaper for the State to give social welfare and rent allowance to all the asylum seekers and to let them live in the community and find work if they can. That would actually save money. In 2014, when I put forward my motion, direct provision was costing more than €52 million. Based on the number of asylum seekers and on calculations I have done, the State would have saved approximately €20 million by ending direct provision. We constantly have to deal with the Department of Justice and Equality, which believes there are hordes of people standing at our borders waiting for an easing of our system so that they can overrun us and swamp the whole country. That is absolute rubbish. We need to end this system and we need to end it quickly.

I know the Minster of State is going around and visiting all the centres around the country. That is a welcome sight, but we heard from asylum seekers in the AV room last week who said that things improve when the Minister of State is coming for a visit. They get better for a couple of days beforehand but then revert back to normal after he leaves. That is a very worrying situation and needs to be investigated and checked out actively and vigorously by the Department. Unfortunately I do not believe the refugee offices are interested in investigating complaints because we have experience of making complaints in the past which were never dealt with. I was barred from visiting the hostel in Donegal town for the last couple of years it was operating because it did not want any scrutiny of how the asylum seekers were being forced to live.

I want to focus very quickly on the working group report. The Department keeps putting out fancy figures saying 92% of the recommendations have been implemented. They probably have but the key recommendations that are important and make a real difference to peoples lives still have not been implemented. These are recommendations such as the right to work and guaranteeing the promised increase in allowances for people in direct provision. It is not enough to say that it is just put back into the general budgetary remit and to leave it at that.

On the aforementioned document to be completed, I spoke to the Minister of State personally on this and he accepted the time limit was a mistake and should not have been stressed. The time has been extended but it is vitally important that asylum seekers get good, sound legal advice as they fill in that application form. It is important that is dealt with. That is not in place for them at the moment. The agencies and NGOs are swamped and are unable to deal with the inquiries they have on hand at present regarding that form. The Minister of State needs to deal with this issue urgently.

Finally, on the argument that we do not have housing for people who are successful in obtaining refugee status and consequently could not do without the centres, I note there are 21,000 empty houses and apartments in the area of Dublin City Council alone. There are 200,000 empty houses and apartments across the country. Why can we not house people who are successful in the asylum process? Why can we not house our own citizens when there are 200,000 empty properties right across the country?

See this speech in context