Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Anyone who has heard about what is happening in the Skellig Star is utterly horrified. It was so bad that it drove people to engage in a hunger strike. Coronavirus spread like wildfire through this direct provision centre. As I understand it, it has still not yet been inspected. Food and water were rationed. At one stage, people were limited to 1 l of water per day. A letter I received stated it had been almost four consecutive months of living in inhumane conditions. The Government has not done anything to address that.

We welcome the news that, due to the pressure created by the hunger strike, the residents will be relocated. They want to know that everyone will be relocated. They engaged in this action in solidarity with each other and do not want anyone to be left behind. They want the relocation to happen very quickly and they want to know that the hotel will be closed.

It is a bad and horrifying example of the horrifying system of direct provision. It is a system which treats people inhumanely while allowing others to profit to the tune of €1 billion of public money over the past 20 years. The residents have to be moved out as quickly as possible, but direct provision as a system needs to end.

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