Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am confused about where Senator Clifford-Lee is coming from because I found the Minister's speech quite informative. It gave us a synopsis of the current position regarding the whole issue of direct provision. I have criticised direct provision in the past. During the early part of the last term, I joined a number of colleagues on a visit to direct provision centres organised by Senator Ó Clochartaigh. I was not at all happy with what I saw and I subsequently made comments to that effect in this House. One of the operators threatened to sue me but that did not materialise, thankfully, because I was protected by absolute privilege.