Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This question has arisen from what was broadly a good news story and comes from my colleague, Deputy Matthews, whose office dealt with the case. The family, who I will not name, lived in direct provision in Wicklow. They were offered own-door accommodation in Galway. The way in which this was handled was, unfortunately, problematic. I am not blaming the Minister personally. The family ended up being extremely distressed as they did not speak English and therefore did not understand why they were being moved. Eventually, after a number of days, a letter was provided to them in their own language, which eased their concerns by a small amount, but at no point was a translator provided to explain why they were moving. This family has come from a situation where people being moved by government has a much more serious connotation and they were understandably distressed. It required the intervention of a schoolteacher known to the family, a local Deputy and a local county councillor to get information to this family. As we move towards ending direct provision, which I know we both support, I encourage the Minister's Department to work on communication with people in this situation to make the transition from these centres as seamless as possible.

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