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

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry and I will make a statement within which there will be a few questions the answers to which I am happy to take in writing.

We have been raising the question of the treatment of residents in direct provision for a month now and I want to repeat that I believe this Government has failed miserably to protect the rights of our most vulnerable during this Covid-19 crisis. I believe that any examination post Covid will show this to be true. We have gone from 62 cases in nine clusters to 149 in ten clusters. Those figures may have increased. I note in his contribution the Minister did not update us on the figures in direct provision.

The inactions in the case of direct provision are abuses of the human rights of people who are seeking protection from war, famine and persecution. We have gone over this previously. Direct provision has been here for 20 years and it has been used almost as a way of deterring people from coming here because of the isolation, humiliation and abuse that they suffer. The Minister said in his contribution that Dr. Catherine Day will produce a report later this year. That will be welcome but I am afraid it will not deal with the urgency of how we deal with Covid-19 in the meantime. We have had multiple warnings, as well as reports and studies that have documented the inadequacy of the direct provision system and although the Minister said that 20% of residents are now in own-door accommodation, that still leaves approximately 6,000 residents living in the direct provision system. What was abusive and inhumane in ordinary times may be shown to be dangerous and possibly even lethal in these pandemic times.

I was struck by a number of things while reading all the replies to various Deputies who put questions about direct provision. First, the Minister has a constant refrain that this is a health issue, it is the responsibility of the HSE, the social inclusion unit or the management of the centres. It is always somebody else but not the Minister for Justice and Equality. It is a bit like the way we deal with the nursing homes. We contracted out the provision of the care of our most vulnerable to private for-profit companies and then when it goes wrong we say, "It is not our responsibility, nothing to do with us".

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