Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputies often follow proceedings in their offices, as I did while preparing to come to the House to speak. I will share time with Deputy Lisa Chambers.

Direct provision is an unnatural setting. Living in direct provision significantly interferes with the right to have one's private family life protected. Gandhi wrote:

The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.

There is no doubt that those who come to this country seeking asylum are very vulnerable. The current system of direct provision centres was established 20 years ago on a temporary basis. It is now long past its sell by date and it must be changed to reflect the country we live in today. We are talking about men, women, boys and girls. There are children who need and want to live their lives with dignity and respect, to be able to dream and to have a far better quality of life than they currently have.

There are approximately 1,500 asylum seekers in emergency accommodation. Approximately 300 of those are children. They reside in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation where they can be shipped like cattle to alternative accommodation to make way for various events being held in the hotels. They grow up in bed and breakfast accommodation and hotels where they must adhere to curfews.

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