Seanad debates

Tuesday, 27 June 2017

Commencement Matters

Direct Provision System

2:30 pm

Photo of Trevor Ó ClochartaighTrevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire, tréaslaím leis an Aire as a athcheapachán mar Aire. I congratulate the Minister on his reappointment as a Minister. I thank him for coming in to take this question, which arises out of the case of a Burmese man who spent eight years in direct provision before getting refugee status. He unanimously won his Supreme Court appeal over laws preventing him working in Ireland before his status was decided. The seven-judge court unanimously agreed that the absolute ban was in principle unconstitutional but has adjourned making any formal orders for six months to allow the Legislature to consider how to address the situation. The court found in principle that when there is no statutory for processing asylum applications, the absolute prohibition on asylum seekers seeking employment in the Refugee Act 1996 and continued in the International Protection Act 2015 was contrary to the constitutional right to seek employment.

This is an issue we have raised on a continuous basis in the Seanad. In fairness, it has been raised by Senators across the House. This raises the question of what the Government is now going to do about the Supreme Court ruling in the six months that it has been given. We had a briefing last week from the Irish Refugee Council on this issue and it has made a number of recommendations. In summary, it has stated that the right to work should be granted to international protection applicants if no decision on their application has been made within six months of the date of the application. The Irish Refugee Council has stated that the period is recommended for several reasons. It is consistent with the timescale for granting the right to work as stated in the commission proposal for a further recast reception conditions directive. It is also in line with the requirement contained in article 31(3) of the recast asylum procedures directive that an examination procedure be concluded within six months. Similarly, six months is the same time period provided by section 39(5) of the International Protection Act 2015 from when a person may request information from the International Protection Office as to when a recommendation will be made on his or her application. This suggests that the Oireachtas, in line with other EU member states, should consider six months to be a reasonable period within which a person can expect an application to be fully examined in a single procedure.

The Irish Refugee Council also recommends that the right to work be provided to persons who are caught by the transitional arrangements in the International Protection Act 2015, that is, the persons who are at different stages of the process but who are now back under the International Protection Office for the single procedure.It notes, as we have noted, that Ireland is currently one of only two members states that currently do not provide the right to work to protection applications. The Government now has the opportunity to align our practice with other member states as a member of the common European asylum system. It is of note that several member states provide protection applicants with access to the labour market at a much earlier stage. For example, Greece does so in zero months, Sweden does so in zero months, Italy does so in two months, Austria does so in three months and Germany does so in three months. I note that the Irish Refugee Council also submits that no conditions or restrictions should be attached to the right to work such as restricting it to particular professions or sectors. It believes, and I agree with it, that such restrictions or conditions may undermine the essence of the constitutional right itself, meaning that the right becomes illusory rather than effective in practice.

As the Minister will be aware, I would have been and still am very critical of the direct provision system, but this is a constitutional issue. It has the full backing of the Supreme Court in this regard. I would like the Minister to outline how the Government intends to address the issues outstanding around the right to work to allow these people that right.

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