Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on this issue which has been very much in the headlines in the past couple of weeks. It has activated the minds of many people around the country and has unfortunately divided communities. Much of that is because of misinformation or the absence of information in many cases. We seem to have a society where sometimes the less reasonable, the less forthright and the less prepared a person is to engage in civil discourse, the more that is seen as some kind of a virtue. That is a sad reflection on where we are. We need to be able to recognise that we have to work together as communities, as Government and as public representatives to find solutions to problems and that is what I hope we will be able to do with this.

One problem is mixing up asylum seekers and refugees. People do not know which is which. They talk of them as if they were interchangeable. Refugees already have the right to stay here. They have been processed before they came here and they will be permanent residents. I know instances of this in my area, such as in Drumshanbo, where there are refugee families who have lived in houses in the town. They will be permanent residents in those areas. That happens in many places around the country. Asylum seekers are different. They are people who arrive here and then go to the authorities and say they wish to see political asylum because they were abused or persecuted because of their political or religious beliefs in the country they were in or because there was a war in that country. In many cases those people are unable to fend for themselves and we have international obligations, as the Minister stated, to deal with that. They are not permanent residents. They cannot be given a permanent home, they have to be given a home for the time it takes to process their application.

Direct provision has evolved over the years. Many of us have been critical of that model. One of the key criticisms of it is its privatisation. It is an opportunity for a set of people to make a lot of money from providing such models. I have seen many cases over the years where families lived in one room in an old hotel. As has been said, Mr. Justice McMahon made it clear in his report that this was inappropriate and should not happen and we should move to a better system. I support that and I know from discussions with the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, that it is happening and there is a move to bring us in that direction, that the asylum seekers would have own-door accommodation, be able to cook for themselves, would have a sense of privacy and would be able to live like normal families. They also, however, need to have services. Many need to acquire language skills. They need to be at least close together, if not in the same area. There is also the question of value for money. The Department has to be sure it can provide the accommodation at the best value for the taxpayers' money. That is all appropriate and correct.

The big issue that most communities have is that they do not know about it until it happens. We are told, and it would be useful for the Minister to clarify this, that is because this has to be done under European procurement rules so that the contents of the contract cannot be divulged until the contract is signed, that it is private. Communities do not know that a direct provision centre for asylum seekers will be provided in their towns until the contract is signed. If it is the case that we cannot do it any other way, we need to have transparency at least from that point forward. There should be a system for how the Department and the providers will communicate with communities, how that will be worked through and how the various sectors, particularly the HSE, the doctor in the local town, the schools, transport providers, are ready immediately to say exactly how and where this is going to work. There are also concerns that the number coming to an area may be very large. People should come on a phased basis, rather than all coming together, so that communities could see that services are being raised to the level needed to meet the people coming in. In many rural communities, people feel their services are already under pressure and are not able to cope.

For many years, they have been trying to get additional services such as SNAs for schools and reduced waiting lists in hospitals. There are many services of which rural communities feel they have been deprived down through the years. When they see new people coming into their communities, they are encouraged by people from the far right to believe this will put further pressure on services. Most of us who would stand back and logically look at this would accept that in most cases supply follows demand. If one increases demand in an area, supply will follow. It is up to the Government to ensure that happens.

The McMahon report has been spoken about on many occasions. If we can provide the kind of services referred to in the report, we would have a way forward out of this situation. The key point is transparency. Negotiations and discussions in this regard need to be transparent and clear. Sometimes communities are led by fear and it often happens that unreasonable scenarios are put to them that do not exist. I have had experience of that myself, as Members will be aware. We have a responsibility to recognise, however, that if people have genuine concerns, they are addressed. It makes it difficult to address those concerns if communities are brought along a direction of protest and blockades as we have seen. That is a disappointing and regrettable situation we have seen occur in many places around the country.

The reality for most people who have experience of asylum seekers in the community has been positive, like it was positive when Irish people went to Australia, England, America other countries. It has been the same for people from other countries coming here. Today I spoke on the phone to a man who does not know me from Adam about pricing a particular item. He told me he has several foreign workers in his business, they are the best workers he has and he is delighted to have them. That has been the experience of most people. However, we see circumstances turn ugly in many cases. Sometimes the reason it turned ugly is that little seed of racism planted among people to be afraid of the foreigner. We all need to stand up to this. In many places, it is not the people in the community who have done this; this is led by a small handful who put out these lies and nonsense. They are the ones who drive it forward, bringing people to boiling point in communities. They do things, which are not just regrettable but irresponsible. All Members have an obligation to stand up to this and ensure it does not happen.

We must ensure that, while the rule of law extends everywhere, it does not finish at a town’s boundary where a small cohort will decide that it will rule the town. Society, this Parliament and the Government must ensure that does not happen. There should also be negotiation, dialogue and reasonable civil discourse. That needs to be brought about as quickly as possible.

One improvement is the fact that, after nine months in the country, asylum seekers have a right to work. That is a positive development and has helped a great deal. We need to examine the issue of the time taken to process asylum applications. It can take a long time, particularly if the asylum seeker is unsuccessful the first time and there has to be an appeal.

If we are going to move out of this situation, we all have to work together. That means we have to be responsible. We must also recognise that those responsibilities just do not fall to those of us who stand up in a community and say we have to be reasonable. They also fall to those who are in government and putting these policies forward. I am not being critical of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, or the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton. However, they and the Department have fallen short in dealing with these situations adequately. That has been the experience in many places. The Minister will acknowledge that, to put it mildly, mistakes have been made in the past. While those mistakes need to be learned from, it does not mean we should be back down from bullies. That cannot happen anywhere. As far as I am concerned, it should not happen in my area.

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