Results 81-98 of 98 for "direct provision" speaker:Holly Cairns

Services for those Seeking Protection in Ireland: Statements (30 Jan 2024)

Holly Cairns: ...be able to handle this number. Of course, the war in Ukraine put pressure on the system but it has reached this point because the system was creaking at the seams from the get-go. In November 1999, direct provision was introduced by Fianna Fáil and it has been a stain on our country ever since. It is a continuation of Ireland's brutal history of institutionalisation. Under the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Direct Provision System (7 Jul 2022)

Holly Cairns: Dignity is key here. Deputy Connolly's question is next, seeking an update on the plan to end direct provision but that process will be hollow if it is not based on consideration and respect. Unless dignified engagement with asylum seekers is embedded into the Department's interaction with them, any new system will have in many ways failed before it even begins. Regrettably, Ukrainian...

Accommodation Needs for New Arrivals: Statements (23 May 2023)

Holly Cairns: ...for asylum today, what are they being told and offered? There are larger issues with the asylum system. I am regularly contacted by constituents concerned that in addressing the Ukrainian crisis, the promised reforms of direct provision have been sidelined. I have to agree with them. We all understood there would be delays when we found out how many people would be coming into the...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Congregated Settings: Meat Plants (10 Jul 2020)

Holly Cairns: ...many of the social injustices in our society and the erosion of the State's role in recent years which leaves vulnerable groups exposed to increased risk. It is evident in nursing homes, in direct provision centres and in this case. The scale of the outbreaks in meat processing plants illustrated the harrowing underlying issues in the sector. We are all aware of the unsustainable low...

Covid-19 (Rural and Community Development): Statements (3 Jun 2020)

Holly Cairns: ...and listen to and amplify the voices of those affected. We cannot ignore this; that is how racism thrives. We also need, however, to reflect on racism in Ireland. This includes the inhumane direct provision system, attitudes towards Travellers, and everyday racism suffered by black people and other people of colour. Covid-19 has revealed and heightened inequalities. It has...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Ukrainian Crisis: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Holly Cairns: ...system have to wait for months. People from Ukraine, even if they are living in hotels and hostels, have access to full social protection allowances, while other protection applicants get the much lower direct provision allowance. Many people in the international protection process wait months for a temporary residence certificate to be issued, whereas people from Ukraine get an...

European Union Regulation: Motion (3 Feb 2022)

Holly Cairns: ...is just one of many examples we could draw on. The State needs to direct its resources to ensure greater equality and integration. The Government still claims that 2024 is the target for ending direct provision, but the slow pace does not indicate to those trapped in the system that this will be achieved. We still have entire families in congregated settings often separated from the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Abortion Services (30 Jun 2022)

Holly Cairns: ...the chaos of Dublin Airport, or being fearful if they can afford it in a cost-of-living crisis. People living in rural areas, working-class people, disabled people, migrants and people living in direct provision all face additional barriers. It is important to note that the Abortion Support Network is a UK charity which provides financial assistance, accommodation and consultation to...

Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (Section 4(2)) (Scheme Termination Date) Order 2024: Motion (21 Feb 2024)

Holly Cairns: ...the State is far too reliant on the private market. It is wholly dependent on entering into expensive contracts with private providers for accommodation for Ukrainians, as it has done for 24 years under direct provision, handing over our responsibility to accommodate and care for asylum seekers to private entities which have profited massively from this State failure while treating asylum...

Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Holly Cairns: ...to contribute and work. The challenge for the Government is to pivot from an emergency response to a long-term integration plan. Too often, immediate solutions become permanent problems. Direct provision was supposed to be a temporary process but, more than 21 years later, that inhumane system remains. Many Ukrainian families are in student accommodation or hotels with short...

Post Office Network: Motion [Private Members] (21 Oct 2020)

Holly Cairns: ...provide an important place for offline members of our communities, for those who do not or cannot access services online, elderly people, Travellers-Mincéir, people with disabilities and those in direct provision. While many of us are comfortable operating our administration and finances online, there are people who choose not to or who cannot due to financial reasons, no access to...

Outbreaks of Covid-19 in Meat Processing Plants: Statements (21 May 2020)

Holly Cairns: ...factories to be seriously looked at. The clusters of Covid-19 in meat plants have occurred despite warnings from workers and representative organisations. These clusters were avoidable, as they were in direct provision centres, if warnings had been heeded. At the best of times, workers in this sector get low wages for physically demanding work and no proper sick pay. Now, today, when...

Impact of Covid-19 on Women for International Women’s Day: Statements (4 Mar 2021)

Holly Cairns: ...show that many women find it incredibly hard to pay for sanitary products. This means they end up wearing pads or tampons longer than is comfortable or hygienic. It means that those in disadvantage, homelessness or direct provision must resort to stuffing their underwear with toilet paper. How is this acceptable? Scotland has become the first country in the world to make period...

Pay for Student Nurses and Midwives: Motion [Private Members] (20 Jan 2021)

Holly Cairns: .... There is a growing sense of solidarity. Large numbers of people who are not student nurses support their cause. On issues we are now confronting as a society, such as mother and baby homes, direct provision and climate change, young people no longer want to see matters being brushed under the carpet, ignored or treated with indifference. This is the generation that is seeking...

Immigration: Motion [Private Members] (6 Dec 2023)

Holly Cairns: ...seeker; every single one is in this country legally. Saying otherwise in this motion, in this House, and in your constituencies is inflammatory and wrong. There are many flaws in our IP system. Direct provision is a cruel and inhumane system that is unfit for purpose. It takes far too long for people to receive refugee status that allows them to live a normal life in Ireland, and some...

Assessment of Needs for Children with Special Education Requirements: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (8 Mar 2022)

Holly Cairns: ...borrowing to access services the State should be providing. Then of course there are the families who cannot afford it no matter how much they save or borrow. There are families from migrant backgrounds or in direct provision who cannot navigate the systems nor afford them. There are whole groups of children who are being left behind by successive Governments. No one wants this...

An Bille um an Seachtú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Cearta Geilleagracha, Comhdhaonnacha agus Cultúir), 2018: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (27 Jan 2021)

Holly Cairns: ...the importance of cultural activities. These rights are a legal and moral tool to fight endemic injustices in our society, to address homelessness, to cut health care waiting lists, to end direct provision, to give all people with disabilities the dignity they deserve, and to seriously respond to the climate crisis. Former President and UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson has...