David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have five minutes but I would need five hours to respond to the very good points made by Senators. I would love to engage longer on many points with Senators. Perhaps I will be able to do so individually at a later stage. I thank all Members for their contributions on this very important subject.

The integration strategy committee will shortly be established. It will set out clear targets, goals and so on. I will be chairing the committee. It will have a co-ordinating and monitoring function, which will be a key mechanism for driving and tracking progress of the strategy. Integration is an issue for all of society, not just the Government. Everybody in society is involved as the community and voluntary sector will also be represented on the committee, along with leading NGOs and I look forward to getting stuck in and getting to work on that.

There are many dimensions to this issue, including local level, political level, schools and workplaces. There are countless ways we can relate to one another every day. This strategy represents a long term commitment to proactively addressing the issue. It is intended to be a living document. As its implementation will take place in a changing and dynamic environment, it too must be dynamic in its approach and capable of adaptation when required.

There has been much discussion of direct provision. There are approximately 800,000 people living in the State who were born outside of Ireland. There are approximately 4,500 people in direct provision. Fewer than 600 of those people have been there for more than five years. We want to reduce the time people spend in direct provision and the International Protection Act is doing that. That was the big issue. If decisions are made in a short period, successful applicants will get the right to work sooner than in a protracted asylum process. The amount of time spent in the process, which was the issue, has been reduced. If a person arrives in Ireland tonight and says he or she wants asylum, he or she is guaranteed bed, board, heat, food and safety in a direct provision centre. I have visited most of them. We are working extremely hard to upgrade them. Can any Senator tell me what we can put in their place that would work if people were to arrive to Ireland tonight and claim asylum? Where would those people go? Should they be given vouchers or money? What should be done? People criticise direct provision. Many people have never been in a centre or have not been in a centre recently to see the changes that have taken place such as that families are now permitted to cook for themselves. We want to move people out of these centres by making a decision on their status, after which either they can stay here or they must go back to where they came from. We also need an immigration policy. Not everybody who arrives here has a right to stay here so we must keep that in mind.

I substantially addressed the issue of funding in my opening remarks. There is funding available. Each Department is supposed to come up with its own funding. Each Department, such as the Departments of Education and Skills, Health and so on, is also putting funding into this.

I take the point Senators raised about dedicating housing. We are trying hard to house people. There are approximately 400 people currently in direct provision for whom we cannot find homes. The Department is working very hard on that issue. We are trying to find another emergency reception and orientation centre, EROC. The EROCs we have are filling up very quickly. We have attempted to obtain new EROCs but cannot do so. I also have asked NGOs if they are interested in running direct provision centres. I am waiting for any of them to agree to do so. Other countries do that. If an NGO can prove it can run a direct provision centre, it is welcome to do so.

The issue of habitual residence condition will have to be revisited. I am very aware of the issue of undocumented migrants and work is under way on it. Third-level fees are addressed in the strategy. It is recognised as an issue and will have to be considered. Our strategy attempts to address it.

The issue of language acquisition is very important. Senator Hopkins mentioned the good work in Ballaghaderreen. There was initial concern but the Senator is correct that the people of Ballaghaderreen stepped up to the plate and are a positive example for the rest of the country.I get more people contacting me to ask how they can help and what they can do to assist. Many community groups do that. We get many people looking for small sums of money from the community integration fund. A lot can be done with a small sum of money if there is goodwill behind it, so I want to give people help to do that.

If Senators know about specific issues and problems, I want to know about them. I would ask them, please, not to make speeches in the Chamber based on a generalisation but to give me specifics. If there is a family or individual under pressure in a direct provision centre or if there is something going wrong, I ask them to tell me. I ask also that they please check before that the information is up to date, that it is not something that happened three or four years ago, that it is not a "dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi" type of thing, and that it is true and happening. I want to know, as do the officials, and we want to move quickly if something is happening that should not be and is a cause for concern. I promise we will move on it, but I ask Senators if they could, please, be careful about repeating things they have read in the newspapers or that was heard somewhere else. They should give me specific examples with names, dates and places and I promise I will follow up on them.

I thank Senators for their engagement. I ask them to keep thinking, supporting and working and to stay positive. There are many good things happening and many very good people are coming to Ireland who can really contribute and be part of our society, but we must integrate and work together. There are 800,000 people who have come to Ireland and 100,000 new citizens in the last while. The citizens' ceremonies were mentioned. They are amazing and absolutely emotional. If Senators have not been to one, they should try to get to one and they will see what is happening there. Let us try to be positive in our approach. Senator Mullen mentioned what was happening in the Mediterranean and other places, which is unbelievable. We are worried about the global situation and what is happening in Africa and beyond. There are huge challenges. We will do our bit as a small country to try to influence change, but the challenges are enormous. I do not know where it will end up but there is no doubt that Europe is under pressure.