Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. He is a regular visitor at this stage. I commend my Opposition colleagues on their contributions thus far. I salute Senator Lawless for the great work he does on behalf of the undocumented Irish in Chicago and throughout the US. In essence, he is now a roving ambassador on behalf of the people of Ireland in that regard. The impact of the work he is doing is immense. This strategy is very welcome and I welcome its publication. What has been proposed is laudable and I sincerely hope it is achieved. Measures like 1% of the Civil Service reflecting our new ethnic communities are welcome, positive and significant.

I will pick up on what Senator Lawless about direct provision. It is a disgrace. I know the Minister of State is genuine in this regard because he was chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality for five years but it is time the Civil Service was told what to do. We need to close down direct provision and relocate those families in decent accommodation where they can reach their own potential. We need to fast-track the application process. Much has been achieved and the McMahon report is great but what measures in the report have been implemented? Let us be honest, the easy recommendations have been implemented. The hard ones have not been implemented yet. Civil servants trot out the line that 60% or 70% of the recommendations of the report have been implemented but I want to see the difficult recommendations implemented. I would go a step further. I believe there should be a timeline in the very near future for closing down direct provision centres. Senator Ó Clochartaigh and I visited a couple of direct provision centres during the lifetime of the last Oireachtas. One could not but be horrified at the conditions. The sense of isolation and being cramped and the lack of dignity were frightening. I repeat what I have stated in this House previously, which is that a future Taoiseach will stand up in Dáil Éireann and give an apology to the people, particularly the children, who have been in direct provision for a decade and possibly even longer.

Our policy regarding Syrian refugees has been very positive and our communities have had very positive experiences in this regard. I see Senator Hopkins is present and the leadership she showed in Ballaghaderreen should not go unnoticed in this House. My home town of Ennistymon has nine Syrian families. I think it works out at 48 individuals. They are wonderful people who I meet in the street all the time. When they are out playing and talking to people in the community, they change from Arabic to English immediately to make it comfortable for the people living around them to engage with them. They are making an effort and we are making an effort, to be fair. Although the North West Clare Family Resource Centre based in Ennistymon has received no additional funding, it has set up homework clubs and an English teaching club. The Syrian children are going to the crèche, which is threatened with closure. It is bizarre. We pick communities that have services and facilities, and rightly so, but we are not meaningfully putting money into those communities. I hope the Syrian crisis is resolved very soon but that is wishful thinking. We probably will be welcoming people from other countries - Syrians and other nationalities from war-torn countries - for many years to come. We need to establish centres of excellence and identify communities that open not just their homes and hearts but their communities and ways of thinking. As many ordinary, decent people and communities are showing immense leadership in this regard, the Government needs to support them. The Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, is an incredible Minister in this area. His heart is in the right place but I fear that he is probably not getting the level of support he should be getting from Cabinet. Direct provision has been in place since 2000 or 2001. That is a specific example in this area. We had a boom and a bust and we now have a recovery but we still have direct provision. Now we have a recovery, we need to make policy decisions, drive them home and show leadership. Regardless of whoever the new Taoiseach will be, the first issue I will raise with him or her - I have already spoken to the two main contenders - will be my wish to see definitive action on direct provision. People like Senator Ó Ríordáin showed immense leadership but unfortunately, he was appointed too late. Had he been appointed in 2011, direct provision would be gone now.

We are where we are. All we can do is look to the future with positivity. This House has a unique role to play in showing leadership. We have all shown leadership. Even in the previous Seanad, motions were tabled in this regard. Within Fine Gael, I will be criticised for criticising but we are here to call it as it is and do the right thing. I believe we are doing good work in terms of the Syrians but we have a lot more to do and a lot more ground to cover. Certainly, we need to put resources into the communities that have welcomed the Syrians. Direct provision, however, is a national scandal.