Fiach MacConghail (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin. This might be our last time engaging formally. The Minister of State might be busy over the next while as we wait to be nominated or re-nominated. I wish him all the best in the general election. In his short time as Minister he put an impetus and full public support behind the report of the working group on improvements to the protection process. I acknowledge the chairman of the Abbey Theatre, but more important the chair of the final report, which is an exemplary document. This is the benchmark. There is no need for us in either of these Houses or in any future Oireachtas to revisit the matter except to update the data. Nothing else is required. I would like to hear the view of the Minister of State on the matter.

The report is an extraordinary document. It is a historical document of anthropological importance. It contains much detail. All Departments and agencies, from the Attorney General’s office to the Department of Social Protection and Tusla, were part of the working group. It is an extraordinary achievement that there was no dissenting voice or minority report. I accept there was one resignation. Ultimately, this is a well lauded and well researched document, which has a considerable status in any way we might benchmark or judge the Government and future Governments.

The report took a while. It was published in June 2015. The Independent group in the Seanad has spent quite a long time addressing the issue. I will never forget it. To my shame, before I had the honour of being nominated and appointed as a Senator I was never in a direct provision centre. My first visit was with Senator van Turnhout and Senator Zappone on a cold, snowy March afternoon in 2013. That is already more than two years ago; it is almost three years ago at this stage. It was a depressing time. It was depressing to leave the Athlone direct provision centre. There was nothing wrong with it except it was soulless. It was devoid of humanity. Everything was done legally that I could see yet what struck me centred around the basic ritual of cooking dinner – one might call it a human right. How could anybody in this State define what a family is if they cannot cook around a cooking ring, gas fire or whatever else in a kitchen? It took me a couple of days to try to articulate that. In a way, that is why we wanted to include a reference to it. It is chilling when one sees the description in the report and the reference to it in the recommendations. Recommendation 4.75 describes the need for residents to set up a sandwich making facility providing a selection of yoghurts, juices and fruit etc. at breakfast time in the canteen, as is done in some centres. That in itself is an extraordinary description of what is absent in many of the centres. The report recommends the Mosney model as one that should be rolled out. I would like to hear what has been done in that regard.

The Government has not come up with a counter-motion but it is important for us as Senators and legislators to hold the Government to account. Families in direct provision cannot call themselves a family if they are denied the very ritual of making a meal in the morning or having the ingredients required to make a sandwich. That is something on which I would like the Minister of State to comment.

The motion outlines that 1,225 children are still in direct provision. Has the number decreased since the publication of the June 2015 report? Are the numbers going down or up? Family dignity also extends to another major recommendation in the report, namely, that the weekly allowance for adults should increase from €19.10 to €38.74 and for children from €9.60 to €29.80. The Minister of State made an announcement that the latter payment should be increased by €6. Such an increase would bring the payment for a child to €15.60, which does not go far enough.