Seanad debates

Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Reception Conditions Directive: Motion

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Martin ConwayMartin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opt-in to this EU directive. I attended the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality and I believe the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, made a fair and comprehensive effort to address the very technical and detailed questions posed to him. The Minister would be the very first to accept that this is not a panacea to resolving all of the many challenges associated with direct provision. On numerous occasions in the past, I have said this is probably something for which a future Taoiseach will have to apologise in the Houses of Oireachtas, in particular in respect of the children who have grown up and spent the most formative years of their lives in direct provision. It is in a similar vein to what happened in institutions run by the Roman Catholic Church and others in the past.

That said, much has happened since the McMahon report. It is a fair comment that the easy recommendations have been implemented but that is the case with every report. There are many recommendations in reports and the more straightforward ones will, of course, always be implemented first. That is just common sense. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is not living in the real world. It is welcome that members of that particular group are still engaged in this process. It is an incremental process. It is something that is being dealt with. It was established 18 years ago as a knee-jerk reaction to a difficult situation where thousands of people were presenting themselves in this country. These centres were established as a temporary measure in order to put a roof over their heads.

What happened then was that the cumbersome and complicated process of assessing their applications kicked in. There were judicial appeals and court cases. Some cases are gone to Europe. People found themselves in the system for a lot longer than they should have. Everybody accepts that. International best practice can be seen in Portugal. If a person is in a reception centre there for six months, he or she is in them too long. However, NGOs in Portugal will still say that they are not satisfied with that system.

I do not think a system has been created anywhere in the world to deal with this particular problem which meets with the satisfaction of all the stakeholders and parties involved. We can always do better. I salute the former Minister of State, Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, a colleague of ours. The issue of direct provision had just been dangling there until he caught it by the scruff of the neck in order to do something constructive and productive. I have spoken to him privately and in exchanges in the House, and I have no doubt he finds it very frustrating and gets very angry at times at the slow process in dealing with it. There is no bad faith on the part of the Minister or those close to him in terms of addressing this problem. Now that we find ourselves in a better place economically it brings with it very clear responsibilities to deal with this issue as quickly as we can. Those who arrive on our shores and present to us for care, assistance and support are the most vulnerable.

We have a very clear international obligation to respect their dignity, integrity and decency. We are a decent State and society. That is what we should be doing and I know that is what we all parties here aspire to. There was a very fair effort by the Minister to address concerns. As we all know, when these EU directives are implemented and become policy, all the ancillary regulations, associated paperwork and explanatory documents usually come down the line. It would be rare that all the bells and whistles from A to Z, the dictionary of implementation, would be available ahead of the directive being brought into force.

I appeal to Senator Norris in the spirit of co-operation not push this to a vote because I do not think it would be right. I know Senator Norris's intentions-----

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