2024 Is Too Far Away

It's a great day to be ashamed to be Irish. Time will not look favourably on us. Direct Provision will leave a stain on all of us. We need Direct Provision to end now — not soon, not eventually.

We need to remove the profit motive from the provision of services for asylum seekers in Ireland immediately.

"The system will not alone provide for the basic needs of asylum seekers in a fair and effective manner but will send out a message to those engaged in fraudulent activity that the State's responsibility is to the genuine asylum seeker and not to those who circumvent immigration controls simply to cash in on what may be viewed as a generous welfare system."¹ That was Minister O'Donoghue at the introduction of Direct Provision. The message this sends is that the people of Ireland don't care about people who need our help.

Minister O'Donoghue also said: "Unscrupulous persons who use the umbrella of asylum to defraud the State naturally prefer a cash-based system."² Honestly, who do you think is milking the state for cash now? Over 120 million euro to Bridgestock Ltd over the years? Unscrupulous? That would be slander against the directors of Bridgestock, but it's Dáil record when it's levelled at asylum seekers generally.

I intend to actively campaign against any candidate in the next general election if they do not use Dáil time to call for an end to Direct Provision in a shorter timeframe than was being proposed at the time. The government's target of 2024 was too far away. It was always too far away.