Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am blushing. I did not even need to wear a pink shirt today because if I had worn a white one, my rosy cheeks would have been reflected in it given the wonderful things that people are saying about my work in government.

I appreciate what the Minister is trying to achieve. That is all very well but, unfortunately, I have to take the same tack as Senator Norris in opposing the measure in front of us for a number of reasons. This all comes from a Supreme Court judgment. That is unfortunate because during my time in the Department of Justice and Equality, and working with the Minster's predecessor, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, this came from a sense of justice. I refer to a sense of a great injustice that was being done in our society. As Senator Conway said, in years to come, there will be a State apology for those who have been languishing in the system for a long time. It has come from that. Something needs to be done.

The strongest voices in Irish society on the issue of direct provision were in this very Chamber, right across the political divide. What upsets me is that the reaction to what needed to happen came from a Supreme Court judgment. It did not come from within the Department itself or from the political leadership in the Department but because the Minister was told to do it. That is a great shame. In six weeks' time the Taoiseach will be in the White House and will hand President Trump a bowl of shamrock. I am sure that in a side office somewhere, he and his representatives will say to President Trump that he needs to do something about his immigration policy and that it needs to be a bit more humane to the Irish. Yet, we have 26,000 undocumented workers who need regulation. We will not do what we are asking the Americans to do. Ireland and Lithuania are the only two countries in Europe which refuse point blank to give asylum seekers access to the labour market.

As was so eloquently put by Senator Black, that sense of dignity of coming home, washing one's hands after a day's work and talking to one's children about that work is the reason for getting up in the morning. It is fundamental to our identity. It also leads into all these myths about asylum seekers in terms of what they can and cannot do and the entitlements they have. We have all heard them. They are all lies. An asylum seeker is not entitled to work, even if he or she wants to.

What is frustrating is the lack of leadership. The political leadership in the Department should be sick to the pit of its stomach at the scenario that we are overseeing and should be trying to change it. I refer also to the hypocrisy of going around the world talking about immigration policy when we cannot do it ourselves. I love the paragraph in the Minister's speech in which I am mentioned, but I take issue with it. It states that the court's decision means that labour market access for applicants must now take place under a two stage process and uses the words "with the best will in the world". I have, and the Minister probably has, the best will in the world but the Department of Justice and Equality has lost any credibility to utter a statement about having the best will in the world. It has shown zero goodwill to any asylum seeker who comes to this country. I know from my time there that the overarching phrase it wants everybody to think about, which it would almost have painted on every wall in the Department, underneath the bulletproof windows, is "pull factor". Before doing anything in the Department of Justice and Equality, one must be concerned at all times about the potential pull factor.That is really what drives this debate. The idea of having best will is, unfortunately, bordering on laughable. It will not be possible for us to have completed all the procedures required to confirm opting in to the directive by 9 February. The Supreme Court judgment was made on 31 May, if I am not mistaken. The judgment called on the Department to do something within six months and then gave the Department another two months to do something. If the Government was serious about this issue, it would have seen the Supreme Court judgment on 31 May as a fantastic political opportunity to set things right. It was an opportunity to declare that no longer would Ireland be one of only two countries in Europe not to allow asylum seekers into the labour market, no longer would we be an outlier in this regard and no longer would we have a questionable record when it comes to direct provision and the housing of asylum seekers. We can do this far better but unfortunately that was not the reaction.

The suggestion that we would operate an employment system under the 2003 Act has been made. It has already been stated that an applicant would have to earn over €30,000 per year. I recognise there is the potential to waive the €500 or €1,000 fee to enter the scheme. There are approximately 60 jobs that an applicant cannot do. The measure reflects classic Department of Justice and Equality thinking. I mean no disrespect to people who work in that Department. However, I know what the Department of Justice and Equality is like. It is about security, law and order, the Garda and prisons. It covers a vast bulk of legislation that goes through these Houses. That is what the Department of Justice and Equality is for. Those in the Department do not really believe that it is their job to have a humanitarian outlook when it comes to issues of people coming to this country to seek asylum. They always refer to the pull factor. We know there have been difficult cases of people who have been possibly raped or victims of violence or torture and who have come into this country. Regardless of the issue, there will always be an official somewhere in the Department who will whisper into the ear of the Minister or the Minister of State words about the pull factor.

On that basis I regret to say that the Labour Party will not support this move in the Seanad or the Dáil. We will support any vote that is called to reject the measure not because we want to do it, but because when it comes to best will and good will we have gone far past the capacity to believe a word that comes from the Department of Justice and Equality on this issue.