Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil mé an-bhuíoch don Teachta Connolly as ucht deis a thabhairt dom páirt a ghlacadh sa díospóireacht seo ar feadh cúpla nóiméad.

I will try to make three points in three minutes, which is not easy. The first point was touched on by what Deputy Connolly just said and what Deputy Clare Daly said earlier. We need to realise that this is not an Irish issue but a global issue, the roots of which stem from vicious competition at a level of interference in other countries that is often endorsed or overlooked by our system and internationally by others.

I will just pick one country. Currently the Saudis are bombing Yemen to bits and the only news we heard about Saudi Arabia this week was that it had made some concession to women to allow them to drive. They are forcing people to remain in that country, bombing it to bits and maintaining men, women and children in famine. What is happening in Yemen is repeated in Syria, Palestine and in other countries in north Africa. That is where the influx of migrants is coming from.

I hate this expression "economic migrant", which is a nonsense. With every hungry belly comes a pair of hands. Everybody is able to make a contribution to society and nobody migrates for reasons other than that they are forced to because they have absolutely no choice. Those in the Gallery or any of the 26,000 undocumented or others who are seeking refuge in this country deserve respect and consideration. They do not deserve to be relegated to a system like direct provision which refuses to allow them carry out the most basic function of humanity, which is to work, and the second most basic function which is to use one's brain and study. What the hell is that about? By the time this country wakes up and allows them to participate, serious damage will have been done to the mental health of men, women and children who, hopefully, will continue to live in this country.

My second point relates to the undocumented themselves. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, which has just looked at the undocumented in the fishing industry. What is going on in that industry is appalling. The WRC, the instrument of the State, trawled the trawlers literally to examine what is happening. However, it was so under-resourced with a total of 50 inspectors in the entire country to look at what goes on industry that it could not get to the bottom of what was happening to, mainly, men from Egypt, Bangladesh and from across north Africa who are undocumented and are being treated cruelly on major boats owned and run in this State.

The one person the inspectors found on a trawler was immediately deported. There is no humanity shown or real consideration given to this. It needs greater resources. We have more dog wardens than labour inspectors. We need to deal with the cruelty that is being meted out to the undocumented who the Minister of State said would be dealt with humanely in each case. They are not even being spoken to. No attempt is being made to communicate with them. Unless we start to do that, the rest is all guff. We must allocate the resources to it.

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