Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to those who welcomed the recent publication of the White Paper to end direct provision and to establish a new international protection support service, a move long overdue and widely anticipated by people who have lived, and still live, in the direct provision system. Ending direct provision was one of the major priorities for the Green Party when we negotiated the programme for Government last year. I am proud to see significant and meaningful progress on it less than one year on.

I am not just talking about those big-ticket items such as those included in the White Paper but also those small nuts and bolts, everyday issues like movement on driver licences and bank accounts, which are important. While I do not want to conflate migration and the international protection process, I want to mark the launch recently of the Waterford migrant integration strategy. I acknowledge the work of the Waterford migrant integration forum and the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, who helped kick that process off in a previous life. I want to mention the Lismore Welcome project which is a great example. It is a model of those community-based solutions to which the Minister referred. I also want to mark the designation recently of Mount Sion in Waterford as the first school of sanctuary and the first school to achieve that status.

I do not want to focus on the countless reasons and arguments for ending direct provision. I would like to believe that in this House and country, with a long legacy of emigration, we fully appreciate the hardship of leaving home but also the hope of pursuing a new life and new opportunities. Our system of international protection should focus on opportunity and fulfilment, finding one's place in the world and contributing to the country that not only acts as a host but, in time, a permanent home. My real interface with the direct provision system was in my teaching life where I had the privilege of teaching children in the centres in Tramore. While I would not gloss over for a minute the impact this inhumane system has had on these children's attainment and development, in my mind's eye I see Kofi, our star centre forward, Enid and Hillary who would draw you anything, and Zinedine, whose mum makes the most amazing biscuits as gifts for the teachers. I see Mohammed who was my best Gaeilge speaker in that class, even though Irish was his seventh language. Their stories are now part of our story. The threads and strands of their lives are now woven into our communities. The fabric of our society is all the stronger and all the richer for their inclusion.

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