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

Médecins sans Frontiéres recently stated we were facing the worst displacement crisis since the Second World War. More than 60 million people across the globe are fleeing conflict, poverty and persecution, either within their home countries or in fleeing abroad. According to the UNHCR, in 2015, 1.2 million people made it into the European Union by sea routes, while 3,771 went missing at sea or died in trying to get to it. A total of 85% of arrivals in the European Union come from the world's top ten refugee producing countries. Some 7.6 million Syrians have been internally displaced, while a further 4.1 million have fled to Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the countries that have been bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011. Some 394,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Europe since April 2011. In Iraq the advance of the so-called Islamic State resulted in over 400,000 Iraqis seeking refugee status. We can add the collapse of society in Libya, economic implosion in many other states, the war in Yemen and the increasing driver of economic and conflict-based migration that is climate change. In the years ahead we will witness more of the same.

The scale of the misery, suffering and death spread across Africa and the Middle East is immense. We need to have this discussion in that context. I do not want to dwell on the reasons for it, but suffice it to say many of the wars and conflicts on the planet, as well as much of the economic ruin and devastation from which people are fleeing, have their roots in the machinations and intrigue between rival powers and the interests of western powers. The weapons used often come form the west, with the profits amassed by the arms industry often finding their home to the west. I make these points to focus this discussion where it belongs.

Some 61 million people worldwide are refugees, which is astonishing. It is true that not all of them are fleeing war, but, as we know from our own history, they are torn and displaced and find themselves as strangers in a strange place. That is the context in which we are discussing the fate of 6,000 inhabitants of direct provision centres in this country. They make up 6,000 of the overall number of 61 million worldwide. How does the Government and the system react? According to Fintan O'Toole, the direct provision system is a form of limbo, a cruel and shameful system, a system in which people are isolated and removed from any meaningful interaction with wider society, largely a for-profit system operated privately which yields huge profits for a few. For the people inside the system, it is a form of incarceration.

I want to deal with the lie that 80% of those seeking asylum and refugee status here are bogus. It comes from a statistic that 60% of asylum seekers receive a negative verdict on their first application for refugee status, but that does not mean that they are bogus or false. Rather, it means that the first response of the Irish system is to deny the application. I have some experience of people who fall into this category. They include a Sudanese doctor and former member of the Sudanese Communist Party who fled persecution for his political beliefs and Christian background. His case was well known, as was he. It was referenced in a UN report on the persecution of the political opponents of the Sudanese regime. His application was refused. It was genuine, but the Irish system ruled against him in his first application. That is just one example of what some say are bogus applications.

Across the country there are voices that are misinformed, but I have empathy with them because of the way in which direct provision centres were to be opened in the past few months. Across rural Ireland, in particular, resources have been depleted, particularly for medical care services, schools, bus services, post offices and the Garda. People living in rural Ireland feel abandoned. Direct provision centres, crucially, are being opened without on-site medical services being available. The Minister asked for ideas on how we could approach the issue differently. In every direct provision centre there should be a medical centre for the people who live in it. On top of this, there must be consultation with local communities, but it does not seem to happen in advance.

The Minister of State is smiling and I know he will come back on this but I think it is important. There are others out there who are full of hate and vitriol, who try to spread misinformation and who try to normalise their own prejudice and hatred. I am not directing my message to them because they do not want facts. They only want to misinform and pluck out selected information that can back up their fanatical claims that we, the Irish nation, are being replaced and are under threat and that our culture is disappearing. This is dangerous rubbish. A classic example is that recently one of these people proclaimed that we do not have a housing crisis or a health crisis but that we have an immigration crisis. Let us take that to its logical conclusion. The reason more than 100,000 people are in housing need, more than 10,000 people are homeless and tens of thousands who are routinely on trolleys is immigration. In one fell swoop, history is rewritten. The crisis never happened; austerity never happened; Seanie FitzPatrick and his buddies in Anglo Irish Bank never drove the economy over the edge; Lehman Brothers never went bust and never brought the entire greedy banking system down with it; and we never paid off €64 billion in debt for the sins of bankers, developers and financiers. Equally, they say, the health crisis was not caused by the cuts imposed, the beds taken out of the system by previous Governments under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael or the support given by Governments for privatised health care and for building a two-tier health system where those with money can be treated and survive while those who have not suffer. No, they say, the problem comes from others, those of different colour or religion who come here for myriad reasons. It is easier to point at them than to identify the wealthy, cosseted and privileged in this country who have done very well, thank you, out of the austerity years. At a stroke, this narrative absolves the foreign investors, vulture funds, our native Irish rich, the bankers I mentioned, cuckoo funds and I could go on and blames the immigrants. We have to stop allowing this narrative to develop.

This is not what Ireland is about. The people of Ireland are notoriously welcoming and decent. Those who wave the Tricolour and hold up the Proclamation while saying they believe in these myths and these myths are true annoy me. They do not have any idea or they decide to forget what has inspired this country and what has driven us from being oppressed by the British empire, a global system where the blood never dried and the sun never set. We inspired others to take up arms against that empire in India and in the African nations. If Connolly and Pearse and their solidarity were shown to oppressed people, then waving the Tricolour and the Proclamation for a culture of fear is absolutely abominable.

We need to take into account in this discussion that there are some Members who were involved in Governments that drove our services into privatisation, who drove down what was available to the people in a democratic and open way, and who are now saying that others are to blame. This is a very dangerous move. It hinges on the debate in respect of direct provision. We have to treat those who need our refuge, sanctuary and support as is our obligation, We have to get it right and do it right. We have to talk to people in isolated rural areas who are fearful of the consequences for their own services and their own towns and cities. Unless we do that, we will have a battle on our hands but the first battle is for the truth. That is why I wanted to say that my remarks are addressed to the decent people out there, not those who wish to peddle their lies and filth. They are not worth it. There are many tens of thousands of decent people out there who will get it when the finger is pointed at those who are to blame - the very wealthy and the Governments that back them up, which increase inequality and leave the people homeless and lying on trolleys without any real care about them, without making any real difference over the years they have been in power. I address that to the Minister of State and his Government. Shame on them that they have not made any dent in the housing crisis or the health crisis and that they have allowed this vitriol to become the common parlance of a minority. I know the vast majority out there get it because when they spend nights in the emergency department, they see black nurses dying on their feet with tiredness, coming off a 12-hour shift and being as kind as anything to their friends and loved ones. That is what they see and know and that is what we have to stand for.

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