Results 41-60 of 101 for "direct provision" speaker:Bríd Smith

Covid-19 (Justice and Equality): Statements (13 May 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...health, and which up until this week had one cleaner with no public health experience cleaning 15 rooms in which Covid-19 infected people were living. Remcoll is not unique, because this system of direct provision is costing the State more than €70 million a year, a significant part of which goes to boost the profits of private companies. We are constantly getting information...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (7 May 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...are the workers in this sector. What is being done to ensure these clusters do not develop into the type of disaster we are seeing unfold in the United States? I want to ask about the clusters in direct provision, specifically the cluster in Cahersiveen which has been well publicised on RTÉ. Cahersiveen residents are now in lockdown and have no contact with the outside world....

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...settings, why is it not available in nursing homes? It seems to me that the statement about nobody being left behind does not tally with that fact. My second question to the Minister relates to direct provision, which we also discussed last week. I said at the time that I believed this could turn into our next catastrophe after nursing homes. We all saw on the news last night the...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (Resumed) (23 Apr 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...people to an acute hospital setting does not seem right. Will the Minister be checking in every single case that the right decisions were made, in the right setting and with the right advice? I shall now turn to the next catastrophe we are facing. Direct provision centres are the next possible catastrophe. In a report released yesterday, the Ombudsman, Mr. Peter Tyndall, stated that...

An Bille um Bearta Éigeandála ar mhaithe le Leas an Phobail (Covid-19), 2020: Céim an Choiste agus na Céimeanna a bheidh Fágtha - Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2020)

Bríd Smith: ..., they may look repetitive but each of them clarifies different degrees of professional ability, including pharmacists, surgeons, doctors and nurses. There is a wealth of talent locked up inside direct provision centres that could be freed. As has been said, if the Minister can tell us a different way it can be done, it is hugely important to do so. The commitments that were made in...

An Bille um Bearta Éigeandála ar mhaithe le Leas an Phobail (Covid-19), 2020: An Dara Céim (Atógáil) - Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Second Stage (Resumed) (26 Mar 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...in the long term at the cost of ordinary people. That must not be allowed to happen. I was reading over the Government's action plan on the Covid-19 virus again and there are many references to direct provision, Travellers, the most vulnerable, the homeless, and people in emergency accommodation but we are still not clear on what actual steps have been taken. As we can see from the...

An Bille um Bearta Éigeandála ar mhaithe le Leas an Phobail (Covid-19), 2020: An Dara Céim (Atógáil) - Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Second Stage (Resumed) (26 Mar 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...call. It is right to do it sooner rather than later. I will highlight a couple of gaps in the Bill. I do so because we are acutely aware of the most vulnerable in society, particularly those in direct provision, in Traveller sites, people living in overcrowded homes because of the housing crisis, the homeless people living in emergency accommodation and those who are forced to wander...

European Council Meeting: Statements (5 Mar 2020)

Bríd Smith: .... We never saw them as our enemies or as people to be beaten over the head or drowned in the sea. Even though there have been arguments and protests in this country recently over the location of direct provision centres, in the main the arms of the Irish people were open to those who were misfortunate enough to have lived in Syria through the worst prolonged war on the edge of Europe for...

Provision of Accommodation and Ancillary Services to Applicants for International Protection: Statements (13 Nov 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...war, but, as we know from our own history, they are torn and displaced and find themselves as strangers in a strange place. That is the context in which we are discussing the fate of 6,000 inhabitants of direct provision centres in this country. They make up 6,000 of the overall number of 61 million worldwide. How does the Government and the system react? According to Fintan O'Toole,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Direct Provision: Discussion with Ombudsman (25 Sep 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...about this scenario because they will suffer penalties in the background and in the unseen areas this horrible system deals with. In 2015, Mr. Justice Bryan McMahon said the people living in direct provision centres were like ghosts and that they were dehumanised and depressed. Four years later, after the recent visit by his office, does Mr. Tyndall concur in any way, sense or shape...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Direct Provision: Discussion with Ombudsman (25 Sep 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...core of the system - I wonder whether the Ombudsman has thought about or is able to examine it - is the privatised nature of delivering the system. Several companies make millions out of running direct provision centres. As far as I am aware, only seven centres are run by statutory bodies; the rest have all been privatised and are run by private companies which include Aramack, Barlow,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Direct Provision: Discussion with Ombudsman (25 Sep 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...to what Mr. Tyndall has said. The Department of Justice and Equality has a role in the matter. Mr. Justice Bryan McMahon did a big piece of work, in which he recommended that we end the system of direct provision, but instead it is increasing in size. There are the multiple problems of the housing crisis, the health crisis and mental health crisis. These are all issues on which we have...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Direct Provision System (9 Jul 2019)

Bríd Smith: 805. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated amount it would cost to introduce a weekly allowance for children living in direct provision in line with the rate for a qualified child including the higher rate for children over 12 years of age. [29758/19]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Eligibility (9 Jul 2019)

Bríd Smith: 807. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated amount it would cost to reinstate child benefit for children living in direct provision. [29760/19]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Direct Provision System (2 Apr 2019)

Bríd Smith: 210. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the practice of direct provision centres encouraging residents to volunteer to undertake duties which could be paid employment jobs; if such practices are widespread; if his Department is consulted by providers before such volunteering is organised; and if he will make a statement on the...

Period Poverty: Motion (13 Mar 2019)

Bríd Smith: .... I put my name to this cross-party motion and was happy to do so because period poverty is a very real issue for women struggling to get by, particularly women living in homelessness or direct provision. However, a week ago, when the Society of St. Vincent de Paul report on poverty rates among lone parents came out, I thought about the motion with a certain degree of disgust and...

International Protection (Family Reunification) (Amendment) Bill 2017 [Seanad]: Second Stage [Private Members] (6 Dec 2018)

Bríd Smith: ...of human beings want to use their ability, their work and their intelligence to have an impact on the society they live in. Part of the solution is to give people the right to work. We have debated the rights of people in direct provision previously. This legislation represents a way of starting to recognise that there is a crisis among families living here. They are unable to access...

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2018)

Bríd Smith: ...rights to people following the repeal of the eighth amendment, that all women have access to the choice to terminate a pregnancy. That may mean a woman in an isolated rural village, a woman in a direct provision centre, a woman who does not have good command of the English language or a terrified young woman who has been raped. It could mean anyone. Anybody who paid attention to the...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Bríd Smith: ...the law as it is written at the moment may not deal with those cases. Transfer of care might be interpreted as merely providing a freephone 24-7 helpline but will do nothing for a young woman from direct provision or from a marginalised community who only knows about a doctor's clinic. She may be impeded by the use of language, her inability to speak English, or a lack of money to make...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Direct Provision System (17 Oct 2018)

Bríd Smith: ...State wants to hear views on alternative systems. I can think of one. Offering immediately shelter, food and safety to children and their parents who come here is a challenge, but leaving them in direct provision accommodation for up to seven years is absolutely obscene. There is an alternative to the system, namely, not having the meeting of the needs of the homeless compete with the...