Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

On my second point, I stood in this House on a number of occasions as the Minister of State and what impressed me most about it was when it stood as and spoke with one voice. The House was never more powerful than on the issue of direct provision. I believe that Members of this House will know, regardless of their political background, that this House was very impressive and managed to move that debate onto a higher platform when Members all stood together and tried to move the issue along. Once again, I was very taken aback when I saw a deletion from the programme for Government. It was a line from the draft programme for Government which referred to the implementation of the McMahon report. Many Members in this House had difficulties with the report and possibly felt it did not go far enough. They believe that direct provision should have been abolished, but at least the McMahon report was the first proper report into the direct provision system in 15 years, and it would have gone a long way towards helping the lives of those in that system. The recommendation in the draft programme for Government that the McMahon report be implemented was deleted and does not feature in the actual programme for Government. I ask that the House again uses its campaigning zeal to seek reforms to the direct provision system. Collectively, and regardless of political backgrounds, all Members believe these reforms and the McMahon report need to be implemented in full.