Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure that many of us heard a modern day Nazi on RTE Radio 1 this morning, spilling bile and racism. It was a fairly horrific five minutes of radio, but it made me think about what this man would think about our direct provision system. We can be fairly confident that, along with his colleagues in Golden Dawn and Front National, he would be firmly in favour of it. After all, our current system of direct provision prevents people from working, from studying, cuts them off from the rest of society, regulates almost every aspect of their lives, and it does not tell them when the system is going to end.

I want to read a small part of a wonderful article by Christiana Obaro, which I am sure many Senators saw last week. She describes living in direct provision, and says:

Do not tell me that direct provision and being the only EU country, apart from Lithuania, that bans asylum seekers from working is the only solution the Irish can come up with to control the immigration of persecuted people from poor countries. Surely you can come up with a kinder, better way? Imagine your child going to another country only to be locked away in camps with endless rules, depressed and isolated from local communities, not allowed to work, given a bed space in a room to share for years with strangers. You are doing this to men, women and children who have fled countries who you have seen on the T.V. news, with all their violence, persecution, hunger and poverty.

It is a stain on politics in this country that for years Government after Government has decided to ignore the disgrace that is direct provision. I am asking for a debate and for the Minister to come to the House. I am asking Fine Gael to take action on behalf of all of us. It has the power to change this system. It is an absolute shame. I believe that many people on the Fine Gael side know this. I would like a pledge, because many of us have been raising this issue since we came into this Chamber, and frankly, nothing significant has changed. There is an opportunity now, after the Supreme Court ruling, to allow these people to work, but good politics and good principles must come into play.