Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to start by talking about State racism. Now 20 years old, the direct provision system is cruel and heartless. It deliberately puts asylum seekers into miserable living conditions to discourage others from travelling to here from outside fortress Europe, and it deliberately separates asylum seekers from the rest of Irish society, the better to make it easy to deport people whose applications do not succeed. It is the major example in this country of State racism.

We have had reports in recent days of plans to end direct provision, and provisions are included in the programme for Government. However, to me, it looks suspiciously like a rebranding of direct provision and I want to ask some questions about that. First, the programme for Government states that direct provision will be ended within the lifetime of this Government. This Government potentially could last for five years. I can say very clearly to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens that the people who marched with Black Lives Matter and the asylum seekers who protested in the centres are not prepared to wait five years for the dismantling of this system.

The programme for Government states the accommodation will now be centred on a not-for-profit approach. The removal of the profiteers is welcome. It is as a result of the pressure that has come from below. However, it is not acceptable to switch from private direct provision centres to publicly owned direct provision centres, in other words, direct provision centres that still provide institutional accommodation to asylum seekers and deny asylum seekers the right to seek housing and accommodation themselves within society with all of the other rights, including housing assistance payment, that other people living in this country have, and including the right to work. Is institutional accommodation going to be abolished or is it not? It seems to me it is not. If someone can tell me otherwise I would like to hear it. It is an important debate.

The programme for Government speaks about speeding up applications for asylum. If an application is accepted a person has the right to stay but if it is rejected what happens? Often times people and their families end up being deported. Deportation is a brutal policy. People are taken into custody and put on flights and kicked out of the country against their will. Will the speeding up of applications mean the speeding up of deportations? We saw almost 600 deportations in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

What the people who have spoken out against direct provision and who have marched want is the speedy dismantling of this system. They want the right for asylum seekers to live in the community with the same rights as others in our society and an end to the racist policy of deportation. I challenge Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to contradict me if I am wrong but it looks to me as though what is being proposed is that this could take a number of years, that institutional accommodation is not to be abolished and that they will continue with the policy of deportation, including quicker deportations.

Citizenship rights were taken away from people outside the EU who were born here after 2004 in a racist referendum. Some of those young people have since been deported. Now that they are in the teenage years they face discrimination in schools, work and study as a result of this. Solidarity and People Before Profit Deputies brought a Bill before the last Dáil stating citizenship rights should be restored. I will resubmit the Bill and add to it a provision that young people who grow up in this country should also have the right to citizenship where it is denied to them at present. I had wanted to go on and make important points about anti-Travellers racism in this society but the clock is against me. This is an issue I will certainly return to.

See this speech in context