Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

"The only thing in common between us is that we are all depressed." These are the words of a person in the direct provision centre in Mount Trenchard who shares a room with seven other people. This person described it as an open prison, a place where people forget their dreams and where their CV has gaps totalling years on end. The person said it changes a person completely.

We have replaced the care of the church with the care of private companies and the profit generated has followed suit but the buck stops with this Government. What is it doing for the person in Moville in County Donegal who has to break the law and leave the State to travel on public transport to Dublin for a five-hour interview or the person who cannot access health or counselling services or language classes because he or she is so far removed geographically? We are giving them €20 per week and turning our backs on them. The Government is laying the seeds of discontent among those who come here and in the future, the children who are allowed to stay. Remind me again why Deputy Stanton is the Minister of State with responsibility for equality. This system needs more than tinkering; it is fundamentally broken. I would call for the Minister of State to resign except that all of his colleagues here agree with him.