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Aodhan O'Riordan admits report into asylum seeker centres won't be ready until next year

The Minister of State for Equality and New Communities has admitted that a report into direct pro...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.36 24 Nov 2014


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Aodhan O'Riordan admit...

Aodhan O'Riordan admits report into asylum seeker centres won't be ready until next year

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.36 24 Nov 2014


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The Minister of State for Equality and New Communities has admitted that a report into direct provision centres will not now be ready until Easter.

Aodhán O'Ríordán TD had hoped the examination of the system would have been ready within the next few weeks but says the working group he has assigned to the task believes that is an unrealistic time frame.

Speaking to Lunchtime with Jonathan Healy, Minister O'Riordan said the delay in the report is disappointing but necessary:

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“I’m in this job four months, I’ve been in to ten centres and already have a working group set up. I want it to be done by Christmas, but the members of the group do not feel it can be done by Christmas, it can be done by Easter.

“I have an 18 month window of opportunity to achieve something and I’m determined to achieve it,” he said.

There has been widespread criticism of direct provision with President Michael D. Higgins referring to it last week as "totally unsatisfactory in almost every aspect".

A report published last month by the Rape Crisis Network Ireland found that individuals living in the system are vulnerable to sexual violence and claimed “significant reforms” of the direct provision system are “urgently necessary.” It identified “the direct provision system and living conditions as both exacerbating these survivors’ trauma and creating vulnerability to additional sexual violence."

Among the many criticisms of the system is the inability of those living within to earn additional income to the state provided €19.10 weekly allowance, despite the processing of their asylum cases taking several years in many cases.

Last week, Socialist TD Ruth Coppinger described direct provision centres as “Magdalene Laundries.”

“The idea that people should be forced to live in these humiliating and degrading conditions, for any length of time at all,” Ms Coppinger said.

“People who seek asylum in this country should live in a normal environment while their application is processed,” Ms Coppinger said.

Last week, a High Court judge ruled against a case that the direct provision centres were a breach of Constitutional or family human rights, when imposed over an extended period of time, on the grounds of failing to provide adequate privacy. However, the court did find that there was no justification for some of the rules in accommodation at centres and that some of the State’s rules in the asylum seeker accommodation network are unlawful, such as the ‘no guests’ rule and the requirement to sign on each day. The court will return to the issue next month when it attempts to ascertain what might be done to address the issues in centres. 

First published: 14.32


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