Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I had some notes prepared prior to the debate but I am taken aback by the Minister's contribution today so I have decided instead to dissect the Minister's opening statement and to refer directly to that speech. It was bordering on the offensive, to be honest.

At the end of the Minister's statement he referred to "constructive solutions" and he reminded Senators not to engage in negative stereotyping of asylum seekers. I believe that the Minister's speech actually engaged in that negative stereotyping of asylum seekers. In the first half of the speech the Minister said quite comprehensively that the State is doing a great job. This attitude from official Ireland towards asylum seekers actually creates this negative stereotype.

I understand where the Minister is coming from when he said that when asylum seekers come to Ireland, they are offered immediate shelter, full board, accommodation and a range of services such as health and education while their application for international protection is being processed. This shelter, however, is completely substandard and inappropriate to family circumstances. Asylum seekers are living in mobile homes in car parks for long periods of time. Their children are growing up sharing beds with their parents and living in very close quarters. While shelter is provided, it is completely substandard.

The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, said that many asylum seekers choose to live with colleagues, family or friends. I am not aware of this number being that great at all. In the next paragraph the Minister said: "We as a Government will not leave vulnerable people at greater risk." I can tell the Minister that the actual risk is the direct provision system itself. It is completely inadequate. People are allowed to languish in this system for years and years on end. That is the problem with the system.

The Minister referred to asylum seekers being vulnerable to "ruthless criminals". I believe the system itself is actually exposing asylum seekers and making them more vulnerable. I have heard many reports of asylum seekers turning to prostitution in order to be able to look after their children in the direct provision system. If that is not creating a whole cohort of even more vulnerable people, then I do not know what is.

The Minister said that in two decades he had yet to hear a credible alternative being proposed to the current system. I will propose a credible alternative, which would be a speeding up of the decision-making system. It is absolutely incredible that people have to wait in substandard accommodation with substandard services being provided to them, while we in official Ireland drag our heels.

The Minister spoke of the excellent report produced by Mr. Justice McMahon, which is almost two years ago. The Minister said: "I want to take this opportunity to place on the record my sincere gratitude to Mr. Justice McMahon and all those who served on his expert group for their invaluable service to the State." The best way the Minister could show his gratitude to Mr. Justice McMahon would be the immediate and full implementation of the recommendations contained in his report. They are simply not being implemented. The Minister also said: "...98% of the recommendations [are] advised as being implemented in full or in progress." I believe, however, that only the soft recommendations of the report have been implemented, and it is not good enough to say that the rest of them are in progress. The Government has had two years to do it and I want an update today on how many of the recommendations are actually implemented and not that they are simply in progress. That is a bit of a whitewash.

The Minister went on to say that the key recommendation underpinning the Mr. Justice McMahon report was to address the length of time taken to process applications and that we now have a single application procedure. It took the Department long enough to implement that single procedure. The Minister said that this is resourced, but I understand that it is still not adequately resourced. One third of the applicants for a judicial review are actually successful. This indicates that there are many flaws in the decision-making process. When we speak about the direct provision system and the asylum system, people often throw out the opinion that asylum seekers "are always making applications for judicial review". When one third of the judicial review applications are successful, would we blame them for applying for a judicial review of a decision? That is an very high number of successful judicial review applications. The resourcing is not adequate in this regard.

The Minister spoke of the Mosney direct provision centre. The residents of the Mosney centre cannot apply for membership of their local library because the Mosney centre is not considered a permanent address. When this came to light, a number of constituents of mine in north county Dublin organised a book drive where they collected lots of books suitable for all ages, children and adults, because many of the Mosney residents were learning English and needed access to reading material. When they arrived at Mosney with the donation of books, they were turned away and told there was no room in the centre to house books. This goes to the core of the system being completely inadequate and inhumane. To turn away donations of books in circumstances where these people cannot join the local library is disgraceful.

Reference was made in the Minister's opening statement to different facilities that have enabled individual families to cook for themselves. The allowance provided by the Minister to asylum seekers does not allow the purchase of food or transport to and from shops with food. In effect, this is not really going to do the residents of direct provision centres any good. The Minister said that adults who will soon have access to the labour market will also see their capacity for economic independence enhanced. When will they have access to the labour market? What is the Minister going to do to transition people into the labour market? The back to education allowance is not available to asylum seekers because the time they spend in direct provision is not time accrued towards applying for the back to education allowance. A large number of people who have been in direct provision for a long time do not have any relevant work experience. Is the Minister going to propose any schemes to allow them to transition in to the workplace? Education and training will be very important in that regard.

Asylum seekers must apply for international protection status under international laws on defined grounds. This is true, but Ireland is failing because we did not have a properly resourced system to process asylum seekers' applications. Everybody knows the procedures are there but we are failing people by not adequately staffing the system - for a long time - and by not providing proper training for those in the system. We have been failing them. I could go on but I have been told that my time is up. I have pages and pages of things I would like to raise with the Minister but I may just put it in an email or write to him, or invite him back to the House for a Commencement debate on this issue.