Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte chomh maith céanna roimh an aitheantas atá le tabhairt ag an Rialtas do dhaoine le míchumas. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach go ndéanfaí é sin. I also welcome the recognition of people with disabilities and their international human rights. I agree with previous speakers that there is no point in conferring those rights if the requisite resources are not put in place in order to allow people to vindicate those rights. In the past, we have seen the recognition of Traveller ethnicity but on the ground, and particularly in Galway city, one sees an appalling situation where young Traveller families with children who are quite ill, and who come under both brackets of disability and Traveller, are treated in a disgraceful manner. They are not being provided with proper accommodation. It is a damning indictment of Galway City Council and Galway County Council that they have not put any appropriate accommodation in place for those families. It is really important.

Sometimes one can wonder if we do anything of value in these Houses. In the past, Senator Mac Lochlainn was the Chairman of Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. As part of its work, the committee wrote a report on direct provision. One of its recommendations was that the Ombudsman be given oversight of the direct provision system. I welcome yesterday's report from the Ombudsman, Mr. Peter Tyndall, who has made a point of doing a report on the direct provision system, in which he notes that he has received 97 complaints about the system. The report covers the whole range of issues which we have raised in this House repeatedly. The Ombudsman reiterates the point that direct provision was designed as a very temporary measure and has been transformed into a long-term solution for the Government, but it is certainly no long-term solution for the people in the system. We need to take what he says on board, along with the observations of the Ombudsman for Children, of international bodies and our own Oireachtas committees, namely, that direct provision is totally and utterly unfit for purpose. It needs to be fixed. It has nothing to do with there being a backlog of applications, the system in itself is an abuse of human rights. This House and the other House need to take that on board and ensure that we address these issues around the direct provision system and put in place another, proper system. A specific debate on direct provision with the Minister as soon as possible would be very welcome.