Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have questions and will leave time for some answers. I refer to the situation of thousands of people in institutional, communal accommodation called direct provision. I note this in the context of great national and governmental effort to tackle Covid-19 where there has been a massive communication campaign to inform everyone about what they need to do in terms of social distancing and how to protect their health and that of their communities. It is also in the context of the Government releasing an unprecedented amount of funding to protect people's incomes, their livelihoods and their lives and taking dramatic steps that have never been taken before. In these contexts, it is particularly difficult to understand the Government's response to people living in direct provision. My figures tell me that there are 1,800 people still sharing a bedroom with people they are not related to and do not know. Will the Taoiseach confirm this?

The HSE came up with a new definition of "household" to work around Dr. Tony Holohan's advice that social distancing is not possible for people in communal bedrooms such as these. It would now appear that a "household" can mean a group of people who have never met before, are from different countries, speak different languages, did not choose to live with each other and naturally do not have knowledge of each other's movements and activities during the day. Frankly, it is scandalous in these wider contexts I have outlined that this is happening and that this fudge is being actively implemented. I spoke to a man this morning who is in desperation trying to comply with social distancing in a direct provision setting. It is causing great risk to people's health and active damage to their mental health, which in many cases was already under severe strain. How would we all feel if we were unable to comply with the social distancing measures that have been asked of us in recent weeks?

I understand, although I do not agree with it, that the communal accommodation set-up has been the way in direct provision, but it is inconsistent with public health needs at the moment. What is more, the fact that a new centre was set up during the pandemic, which forced people into communal bedroom situations, is mind-boggling when we are supposed to be pulling out all the stops. I have figures of 5,866 people in direct provision and another 1,585 protection applicants in emergency accommodation. Will the Taoiseach clarify how many of these people have been tested, how many have tested positive, and how many have now been provided with their own bedroom where they can isolate? The approach to protecting people's health in direct provision is an active failure. We now have a legal opinion emerging from the Irish Refugee Council contending that it is also a breach of various human rights commitments. It is not that the Government did not move fast enough or did not understand the reality. It is that it knew it was not the best approach and carried on anyway. We must do better.

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