David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I reject out of hand the terms "incarceration" or "open prison". They are populist, inflammatory and wrong. I ask colleagues not to use those terms. I have visited almost all direct provision centres in the country, some of them on a number of occasions, and I can say that the Senator's contention is completely wrong. I challenge colleagues to tell me what the alternative is. What would they like to see put in place? How would it work? The alternative would be that people would come here looking for asylum and could end up on the streets. That does not happen. Everybody who arrives here is offered accommodation and nobody who looks for asylum is left without a bed, food, security and safety. We are speeding up the process with respect to decisions.

Getting back to the main topic, there is no excuse for any person or society to treat any other person without dignity or respect. This is not an alternative to anything. It is a prerequisite as to how we ourselves would like to be treated. I have listened very carefully to the comments made. If anybody out there is aware of residents in centres who are being treated unfairly or wrongly, they should bring it to our attention. I am not just talking about people who might be the subject of such treatment but others who might know of such treatment, including the Senator.They should bring the details to our attention and we will look into it and deal with it.

While I cannot get into detailed and specific responses at this point, I can assure all Members of the House that I will ask the Minister to revert on any specific point raised. The points raised will be taken into account as the services provided to those in the LGBTI+ community improve. I can assure the House we will work with relevant State agencies to ensure that compliance criteria and standards are finalised for accommodation centres and will continue to be improved. We will also support measures to ensure that centres are inclusive of LGBTI+ young people, with particular consideration of transient gender issues, so that homophobic and transphobic allegations made by refugee asylum seekers and anyone else in these centres are properly investigated, and support is focused on those who may have experienced or who report homophobic or transphobic bullying or harassment in their country of origin.

A project plan is now in place for the development of a national LGBTI strategy for publication by the end of this year. I am chairing the strategy oversight committee and this will include full consideration of all relevant issues for persons living in accommodation centres. As we speak, officials from my Department are meeting with officials from all other Government Departments to progress this LGBTI strategy for the country, and this will include everybody.

I thank the Senator for her remarks. I take these issues very seriously indeed. I thank the Senator for bringing these issues to our attention and ask her to visit all the centres. If there are issues she is aware of, she can bring them to my attention.