Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I condemn in the strongest possible terms the disgraceful attack on an IPAS centre in Drogheda last week. There should not be any tolerance whatsoever here, and I know there is not, for such aggression and attacks of that nature. At this stage, most of us have seen the images - we have all been appalled by them - of an accelerant being poured before the fire was lit, a fire that trapped children including a small baby on the upper floor of that building. If not for the quick action of our local fire services, we could be talking about a very different situation here today. I hope every community leader will send out the message that attacks on any community cannot and will not be accepted.

That said, it has to be acknowledged that the Government has made a mess of the international protection system. Instead of action, we have performative politics. We get announcements designed for headlines - there was another one today - but little or no action. We get commentary from the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, who, it seems, have finally woken up to the reality that things are not rosy in our immigration system but they remain in denial as regards their own responsibilities. You would swear they were commentators walking down the street just giving their opinion. Having spent years at the heart of government, they have overseen the sorry state of the system. We see a small number of well-publicised deportation flights designed to capture press and give the impression of action. That is the reality. That is what it is about and I do not it is appropriate.

When you look behind the curtain and see what is really happening, if we are going to talk about deportation, there were 2,403 deportation orders signed last year but just 156 deportations confirmed. That is a problem. This year to mid-September, the number of deportations confirmed was less than 10% of the number of orders signed. For an immigration system to work, to have a proper managed system, for it to be truly fair to all involved, to economic migrants, asylum seekers and our citizens alike, the rules must be fair, and most importantly, they need to be enforced. The failure of Government that I have just described is not acceptable. Decisions are taking far too long. There is not proper oversight when applications are refused. That is not acceptable to people fleeing war and persecution. Nor is it acceptable to those who are here and are rejected when they have families and have built up networks, friends and so on. There has to be a proper system that is enforced and greatly speeded up.

There are now 32,000 people in direct provision across the State and, as many Members have mentioned, there is no real strategy to deal with the high level of arrivals. Instead, we get unchecked profiteering, private operators springing up offering any building they can get their hands on, and humans fleeing God knows what being shipped around in buses and handed over to operators with no checks. The Government has rejected time and time again Sinn Féin's call for a full review of this. The Comptroller and Auditor General has told the Minister that there needs to be a root-and-branch review and still we get no action from the Government. It is protecting a profit system that hurts those in the system and ignores communities.

Sinn Féin's position is clear that, first and foremost, deprived areas should not be used as locations for IPAS accommodation centres. I have made the point before. Donegal is one of the most deprived counties on the island of Ireland. That is what the statistics tell us, yet per head of population Donegal has the highest number of IPAS centres and individuals availing of that service and the largest number of Ukrainians as well. That is just a badly managed system. We have made it clear that the Government's approach is not working, yet it refuses to listen. The Government needs to stop trying to blame others and start doing its own job.

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