Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like myself, the Leader will have looked at the Taoiseach and the Ministers in the United States over the past week raising the issue of the undocumented Irish.It is a just and important cause. I do not think anybody in the Chamber does not have family who fit that category.

However, one has to compare our approach to the undocumented Irish to our approach to those who come to this country seeking asylum. A few years ago I was chairperson of the public service oversight committee. The committee visited asylum seekers in the direct provision system throughout the State. We went to disused family centres, hotels and buildings and saw families living in surroundings which were entirely inappropriate for their needs. We listened to their stories and prepared a report. I am pleased today that the Ombudsman and Ombudsman for Children have oversight of that system.

I was horrified recently to learn that the Department of Justice and Equality intended to place 150 men, women and children seeking asylum in Lisdoonvarna in west Clare, a village which has a population of 300 outside the summer holiday season. The asylum seekers will be housed in an old hotel in a rural area. It is a great deal for the person who owns the hotel, and good luck to him or her. It is a great bit of commerce, but it is completely inadequate, in particular for the children in the system. The decision is completely unfair. In the main, those who objected did so in the interests of the families who were going to be placed in an entirely inappropriate setting.

Some attempted to misrepresent those who objected as racist or whatever, but that was not the case. They raised the same issues as those raised by our committee, namely, that 150 human beings, in particular children, from all parts of the world were being sent to a hotel in rural Ireland without the necessary amenities or community support. How dare the Department of Justice and Equality make a decision like this without consulting asylum seekers and the local community. I appeal to the Leader to stop the hypocrisy of talking about the undocumented Irish in America while treating asylum seekers, in particular children, in the manner in which we do in this country. We need to sort out this issue.