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

Somebody in the Minister's Department decided to send applicants from overcrowded conditions to remote hotels, some of them still overcrowded, where they could not socially isolate and where they share bathrooms and shower facilities, communal kitchen and shared meals. Somebody thought it was okay to pack a bus with 120 residents and send them down to Kerry from a centre in Dublin when the centre in Dublin had Covid-19 cases. Testing began on 14 April for residents in Cahersiveen. Four tested positive but it was not until 28 April that a dedicated medically qualified person was appointed to the Skellig centre. During all this time, the Minister and his Department were content to issue statements that everything was being done to ensure the health and safety of residents at all stages.

There is a huge disconnect between that reassurance and the reality on the ground. The Government is happy to contract out the responsibility to a private for-profit company called Remcoll Capital - a company with no medical experience, no expertise in public health, and which up until this week had one cleaner with no public health experience cleaning 15 rooms in which Covid-19 infected people were living. Remcoll is not unique, because this system of direct provision is costing the State more than €70 million a year, a significant part of which goes to boost the profits of private companies. We are constantly getting information about the lack of proper condition and poor treatment and nutrition available in direct provision centres. Guidance in an email or on a website is not enough. There has to be enforcement of the conditions in these centres. Where is the enforcement in Cahersiveen and other centres? The Minister is not absolved of the responsibility for the conditions in these centres unless he enforces their proper adherence.

First, where did the letter given to the residents in Cahersiveen this week emanate from? Second, will the Minister be forcing another lockdown on those residents if they are told they are not doing enough to socially isolate? Third, will he allow them to move out into centres where they will feel safe? At the end of the day, the only way to deal with this inhumane system is to grant asylum to all the direct provision residents. He should grant it to them immediately.

I will later post a series of photographs on Twitter. I am sure the Minister has heard of "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"; wait until he sees the seven billboards outside Cahersiveen that will condemn him and his Department. I hope he will feel ashamed about it. The social solidarity of the people of Cahersiveen is next to none.

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