David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies who contributed to the debate. I am somewhat disappointed that more people did not arrive in here. It is the issue of our age. We also had time set aside for this tomorrow so there was plenty of time for more people. The debate has been very useful. Some interesting ideas have come about here. We are very open to suggestions and ideas that are practical and workable. As the Minister said, direct provision is a guarantee of shelter, food and a place of safety to a person who claims international protection on the basis of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, nationality, religion, political opinions or membership of a particular social group, or where that person would be at risk of suffering serious harm if returned to their home country.

There is a range of State services offered to these people who are very often without means. That includes accommodation, food, health services, utilities, educational provision for children and so on. In general, these services are offered in centres which over the years allowed for the swift provision of accommodation to applicants. If someone arrives in Dublin today and says they are looking for asylum they are guaranteed all these services that night. When people say abolish the system they are actually calling, and maybe they do not mean to do this, for the end of the free access to medical care, education, weekly payments, shelter, food and so on that happens very swiftly. People say it is inhumane. I reject that out of hand. It is not inhumane. People who say it is are helping other forces here who are using that to discredit all asylum seekers. Much work has been done in recent years to improve the system, the McMahon report, the right to work and the Ombudsman and Ombudsman for Children going to the centres. Conditions and standards were published recently which will be binding from 2021 on. All the centres coming into play now will have to abide by those as well.

Any of us who engage with people who look for international protection cannot but be moved by the needs of people who, very often, as Deputy Lawless put it so well, travel long distances and risk their lives. If we are human at all we cannot but be moved to help and support those people in some way. I call on community leaders, faith groups, community groups and elected representatives to wake up to what is going on and not, as Deputy Niall Collins put it so well, to be trapped by far right groups who are infiltrating and causing a lot of damage.

It is all very fine to come in here and say abolish direct provision and that it is inhumane, but what is the alternative? No credible alternative has been put forward. We are improving the system that is there. I know from talking to people in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, and others that because we are improving it and we are open to moving it forward the system is pretty good. I do not want to see people in emergency accommodation. Nobody wants that. We have improved the timescale. At this stage 45% of people in centres are there for one year or less, and 18% are there for two years or less.

I could talk for an hour and longer on this I have taken so many notes from listening to what people have said. This debate has to go on. People have been talking about the Department of Justice and Equality. I have seen officials in the Department work extremely hard on this and go above and beyond the call of duty to work with these people. In the early days I visited one centre that we were concerned about and when I was leaving it local people came to me and asked me to keep it open. They said they had more teachers in their schools, more people working in the area, they had services, etc. The local chamber of commerce, leaders of the county council and public representatives asked me to keep it open. There were concerns about Lisdoonvarna; it is a model now. Ballaghaderreen has been praised around the world for what it did. That is a refugee centre, which I know is slightly different. We need to have this debate.

Alan Kurdi was mentioned and the Vietnamese girl who said in her text:

I'm sorry Mom, my path to abroad didn't succeed... Mom, I love you and Dad so much! I'm dying because I can't breathe. I am sorry, Mom.

If it was one of our children and we got that text how would we feel? So far this year I understand that 1,200 people have drowned in the Mediterranean sea. That is three Jumbo jets. If one small plane crashes anywhere there are headlines everywhere and yet there is nothing about that.

We have to be careful also about the language we use. People say they are "locked up", "incarcerated", they are "open prisons" – wrong, wrong, wrong. No, no, no. Once people start using that language they are saying that asylum seekers in some way deserve to be locked up, that they are prisoners, and they are creating fear. We have to be careful about our language because that language is not correct, it is false and wrong.

We are open to any suggestions or ideas. Deputy Ó Cuív mentioned a forum. I am open to that. There is a group working under Catherine Day considering best international practice. There is an interdepartmental group. There was the MacMahon report. On Friday I will launch the private community sponsorship model for refugees. I invite all Deputies and Senators and public representatives to read this. It is a way that communities can take in a refugee family and look after them. There are already several centres around the country for families who have come in. One family is taken into a village. People tell us about the housing crisis but there are vacant houses all over the country, that people own. Identify one, get a local group together, furnish it, welcome in a family, integrate and look after them.

That is another model which they have had in Canada and in the UK. We have had a pilot scheme here over the past several months which has been hugely successful. The people involved in it have told me that nothing before in their lives has given them so much personal satisfaction.

I join in the condemnation of the terrible intimidation of Deputy Martin Kenny.

On the issue of consultation, we want to consult and engage with communities at the earliest possible opportunity. We have 39 direct provision centres across the country which are working extremely well. There are no issues with them. If, however, there are issues, we want to know about them and deal with them straightaway. I have said to the NGOs and others involved that Facebook or Twitter should not be the default method of communication. Instead, people should talk to us and to our officials. They will help sort out the problem.

In the centres, people can get all the services and supports together, which they need in the early days when they arrive here. At one centre I visited - I tend to visit them quietly - one lady there had received bad news about how one of her family had died tragically in her home country. I saw the centre staff wrap themselves physically around her to comfort her while she went through that trauma. If she was living on her own in a house in the middle of nowhere, that could not have happened. There are significant advantages in having centres properly resourced with the services people need and not overcrowded.

We need to have a mature, proper debate while watching the language used around it. We must reject racism out of hand in all guises, no matter from where it comes. It can be very insidious and clever as to how it sneaks in. Sometimes we ourselves can use language which is racist without meaning to or knowing it. We need to be careful how we approach this.

I apologise that I have gone way over my time. I thank everybody for the debate this evening. I have many notes taken. I hope the debate continues in a positive way. If people want to talk to us and if there is accommodation in parts of the country which could be used for asylum seekers and people looking for international protection, they can talk to us. Our problem is that if we are dealing with this on a commercial basis, there is a certain amount of confidentiality needed. What has been happening recently is that word leaks out. If a place is being done up, people ask me if it is true that it is for asylum seekers. In many instances, that is not the case but rumours are circulating. There is nothing to be afraid of. These people do not want problems or trouble. People coming here looking for international protection want only peace and to get on with their lives.

We are working as hard as we can to improve the system. I thank Members for this constructive debate. We must work together to continue to make progress on this issue.

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