Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second the Bill. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome to the Gallery, Dr. Liam Thornton and David McCarthy.
I welcome the support we have received from NASC for this Bill. I believe this is reflective of a growing momentum, both politically and in the public domain, to address the unacceptable conditions referred to by some as warehousing and even as open prisons imposed on individuals and families residing in direct provision.
I would like to mention again the work of the former Seanad cross-party group on direct provision that is now open to all Members of the Oireachtas. Yesterday evening, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh held a briefing with Ms Sue Conlon from the Irish Refugee Council and Mr. Reuben Hambakachere from the IRC's core group of asylum seekers and refugees. Both Ms Conlon and Mr. Hambakachere are members of the recently established working group formed to examine the improvements to the protection process and the direct provision system. The establishment of which I have warmly welcomed on the floor of this House.
In the group's composition I am delighted to see personal experience, academia, civil society and departmental views represented. I wonder if additional space might be available to incorporate more members currently or recently residing in direct provision. I ask the Minister of State to confirm when the working group will meet for the first time. I understand that the first report of the working group's proposal is anticipated before Christmas and wonder if its schedule of meetings and detailed terms of reference have been formalised.
Let me return to the Bill before us today. I welcome and thank Senator Norris for the opportunity to second the Bill. I believe it is a fair, workable and appropriate solution to the State's current inability to deliver a speedy and robust yet fair and transparent status determination system. I, too, welcome the Government's commitment to the introduction of a single protection procedure. My many and specific concerns about direct provision have been put on the record of this House on many occasions. In summary, I approach it from a children's rights perspective. Mr. Hambakachere put it perfectly yesterday evening at the briefing when he said: "Children in direct provision are children like any other children and parents in direct provision are parents like any other parents." As of June 2014, there are 1,420 children in direct provision which is about one third of all residents. I recognise that those who have spent a significant time in direct provision may be at different stages of the status determination system or have deportation orders outstanding and may be engaged in litigation before the courts. However, of the 4,296 current residents in direct provision, over 2,093 - nearly half of all residents - have been in the system for four years or more. Startlingly, over 16% or 698 people have been in direct provision accommodation centres for a period of seven years or more. Many of the children among this number were born in direct provision and so they are countless. I have met them and there are children aged between five and nine years in this State who know nothing other than direct provision. For me, this is an unacceptable state of affairs and a moral failing on our part. This Bill is an attempt to begin discussions on the difficult and complex issue of regularisation of status for those who have been here for some time.
It is particularly appropriate that the Minister of State is in the House today because I welcome and support the role this Government and others play in campaigning for the 50,000 or so Irish citizens who have become irregular migrant status in the United States.

This Bill seeks to focus our minds on similar people from other countries who want the same compassion and rights in Ireland as we are currently seeking for our brothers and sisters in the United States. We cannot contradict ourselves in the Seanad when we are in the United States arguing for regularisation of status. The Bill offers an opportunity to bring some humanity to the determination and deportation process. It will act as a catalyst to ensure we get the single protection procedure right and consider claims fairly and accurately within a limited period. The Bill maintains strong protections to ensure the Minister can, for clear and specified reasons, remove a person from the State even if she would otherwise qualify for a residence permit.

As Senator Norris has said, we are open to engaging with others in the House and elsewhere to modify and clarify issues with the Bill in its current format, but I urge that the Bill would proceed to the next stage. This would send a clear message indicating that we are serious about regularising the status of these people and that it is not acceptable for the only experience of certain children between five and nine years of age to be in a direct provision centre. We stand over this message. The Minister of State will go to the United States and use the same arguments I am using on the floor of the House today to argue that our brothers and sisters in the United States should be regularised and I agree with him. Let us not contradict ourselves in the House today. Let us show compassion. Let this go to the next stage.