Written answers

Monday, 11 September 2017

Department of Justice and Equality

Direct Provision System

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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566. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the rationale behind the regime of direct provision of refugees here. [36936/17]

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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The need to establish a comprehensive system for the provision of accommodation and related services arose from the increasing number of asylum seekers arriving into the State in 1999. Prior to this, asylum seekers were treated as homeless under the structures then in place.

These proved unsuited to the situation facing Ireland in 1999 and subsequent years, when the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland increased dramatically. A total of 7,724 asylum applications were received in 1999 and a further 10,938 in the following year. Of these, most presented themselves in Dublin. The homeless service of the then Eastern Health Board could not cope and there was a serious prospect of widespread homelessness among asylum seekers.

In response to this serious and unprecedented challenge, the then Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue T.D., chaired a cross-departmental group to examine the issue. From this, the Directorate for Asylum Support Services (DASS), under the aegis of the then Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, was established in November 1999 to co-ordinate the scheme of dispersal and direct provision for asylum seekers. DASS was subsequently replaced by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) on 2 April, 2001. The government policy of dispersal to locations outside the capital was also decided on in order to alleviate the burden on State service providers in Dublin and surrounding areas and to spread the burden of education, medical and other services across the State, as far as practicable.

It is a common misconception that 'direct provision' relates only to the Department of Justice and Equality. The Government has made a conscious decision that asylum seekers would access services, such as health and education, through the existing mainstream services. This also implied that the Government would not introduce separate, parallel services specifically for asylum seekers. It is for this reason that such mainstream services are not, in the main, provided in centres, unless the Department concerned has deemed it more appropriate to do so. For example, the Department of Social Protection provides CWO services and the HSE provides GP services in Mosney as the number of residents there (approx 800 persons) make this a more efficient option. In general, the guiding principle is that those in the protection process are provided with whichever services they are entitled to on the same basis as the indigenous population and through the same systems.

Currently, without the existence of accommodation centres for protection applicants, it is likely that such responsibility would revert back to the homeless services, now provided by local authorities, as there is no other mechanism to cater for this group. It is also likely that the homeless services in the Dublin local authorities and surrounding areas would come under disproportionate pressure from applicants.

The system of supports for those in the protection process was included in a major review carried out in 2014 by Judge Bryan McMahon. The majority of recommendations in that report have been and are being implemented and details of the progress are available on the website of the Department.

The Deputy will also be aware that the Programme for Partnership Government states: "Long durations in direct provision are acknowledged to have a negative impact on family life. We are therefore committed to reforming the Direct Provision system, with particular focus on families and children." Together with the recommendations of the McMahon report, the implementation of the provisions of the International Protection Act 2015 are making a real difference to the overall system of direct provision in Ireland.

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