Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Taoiseach to the House. In fairness to the leader, Senator Buttimer, it is incumbent on us in this House to work together to try to solve problems, a few of which I want to raise with the Taoiseach in my short contribution. Senator Ruane and I work in the drugs area and want to have good engagement with the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. Senators Kelleher and Mac Lochlainn and I, who work on the Traveller ethnicity issue, hope to get good co-operation from the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton. However, I must ask the Taoiseach about the issue of direct provision and my contribution will be solely on that issue.

In this House, when I was Minister of State, there was uniformity of opinion on the issue of direct provision. I see Senator Conway, who is one of the most vocal on it, in front of me. We came to speak with one voice and the need for action on it. A report was commissioned. At the time the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and I worked very hard to commission that report. We worked to implement it. It was said on national radio last week that of the 2,000 people in direct provision over five years, as a direct result of that report, 1,500 are no longer in direct provision, which is a good day's work.

However, the draft programme for Government that was released had a commitment to implement the McMahon report, which took nine months to put together. It was compiled by NGOs and Department officials, so when it was signed off on, the assumption was that it would be implemented. To my horror and to other people's horror, that sentence regarding the implementation of the McMahon report was dropped from the actual programme for Government. I therefore ask the Taoiseach, because of the nature of the vulnerability of the families and children living in direct provision, that we implement that report. We are not asking for a new report. We are not asking for action to be taken which has not been already cited. We are asking that the Taoiseach give a commitment to implement the report, which was commissioned by the Department with officials from many different Departments and NGOs in good faith and which has been published and was being implemented. The Minister of State was here and was not in a position to give the commitment that it would be implemented. The Minister for Justice and Equality is not in a position to say that she will implement it. I would love if the Taoiseach could stand here today in this House and make such a commitment to the Members who collectively, in a cross-party manner - this is not a divisive issue in this House - are all committed to the implementation of the report.

The Taoiseach stood as a proud Irishman in the Dáil and spoke in a tearful way of the issue of the Magdalen women. He was commended for doing so. I commended him - we all did - because it was an emotional day for everybody in the Oireachtas. However, I am fully convinced there will be a Taoiseach in 20 or 30 years' time who will have to make a similar apology over the issue of direct provision. It is within the Taoiseach's gift today to stand in front of us as a collective and say: "I, as Taoiseach, will oversee or insure that the McMahon report will be implemented."