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AN EXPERT GROUP on Direct Provision is being announced today to look at new ways to “better meet needs of asylum seekers”.
Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan and the Minister of State for Equality, Immigration and Integration David Stanton have formally announced the establishment of the ‘Expert Group on the Provision of Support, including Accommodation, to Persons in the International Protection Process (Asylum Seekers)’.
Since September 2018, international protection applicants have been placed in hotels and B&Bs due to pressure on Ireland’s asylum system.
There are currently over 1,500 international protection applicants living in emergency accommodation, with 34 hotels and B&Bs in 12 counties now contracted by RIA to provide bed and board.
Flanagan said: “I am pleased that we can draw on their expertise to see if there are new ways in which we can better meet the needs of asylum seekers and ensure we can adapt quickly to any variations in demand.”
He added that the expert group “brings together a small number of highly experienced individuals to devise long-term approaches to supporting asylum seekers”.
Former Secretary General of the European Commission, Dr Catherine Day, has agreed to chair the group.
Its membership comprises of: Dr Frances Ruane, former Director of the Economic and Social Research Institute; Frank Daly, Chairman of NAMA; Niamh O’Donoghue, former Secretary General of the Department of Social Protection; Conn Murray, former CEO of Limerick City and County Council; Fiona Finn, CEO of Nasc; and Bulelani Mfaco of MASI.
Minister Flanagan continued: “This is a complex issue for all EU Member States and there is no doubt that we have just to learn from each other.
While substantial improvements have been made to our reception system in recent years we are constantly looking to improve our service. In particular, I want to see better medium and long term planning embedded in our thinking.
Flanagan said that Day’s experience as Secretary General to the EU Commission “is particularly important and valuable” and the Group will be engaging with other EU countries as well as the European Asylum Support Office.
Stanton highlighted the role that the group will play in supporting engagement with local communities where new accommodation centres are planned to open.
Various communities around the country have raised fears over infrastructure and a lack of services to be able to accomodate Direct Provision centres being opened, including in Oughterard, Co Galway; Ballinamore, Co Leitrim; Borrisokane, Co Tipperary and on Achill Island.
“While we have recently had successful outcomes in opening new centres in Borrisokane, in Ballinamore and in Ennis,” Staunton said, “the expert group will look at how we can engage more effectively with communities so that we can work together to respond to the needs of asylum seekers and of local residents.
“This is essential for successful integration opportunities,” he added.
The ministers acknowledged the important role that elected representatives play in communities and said there would be engagement with elected members, among others.
The group is tasked with developing long-term approaches to responding to the needs of asylum seekers in the protection process and will complete its work by the end of 2020.
- with reporting from Cónal Thomas
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very moving documentary and very difficult to watch. just goes to show that how a person is treated as a child stays with them all through life.
Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize. I hope Christina and her siblings schedule re-unions a few times each year. They deserve to have the time to be together without the intrusion of media and cameras. It might help them fill the empty space that they hover over at the moment. Each of the four no doubt have their own separate circles of friends. They need now to be afforded the space to reaffirm that special circle of friends called family.
She has such passion for children.she is an inspiration to us all.it was a compelling programme
I read her book nearly two decades ago and it still haunts me. I couldn’t understand how her work in Vietnam wasn’t more well known but maybe her account of her childhood was probably too raw for a lot of people. She’s been a personal inspiration.
Some people when they’re at their happiest (singing) show real pain .
Wonderful to see how television reached the hearts of the Irish people (the word premiere was held in Dublin last September). And don’t miss the film NOBLE when it comes around again. It would be nice now to have Journalists, Senators and Politicians comment on Christina Noble’s story, in the context of what is happening in Geneva right now, as Ireland faces the United Nations condemnation of our serious lapses with Human Rights at home.
After watching the programme I think Christina has mentally suffered from her years in an institution you can see the hatred in her against the government and the church at the time and I think her way to deal with that is to look after those unfortunate children .one part where I thought she was out of order was when she made a verbal attack on what she thought was a priest ,you know a lot o priests were sickened as to what happened to these kids too there are a lot of good priest out there . .One more thing I want to say ,I was also institutionalised in an industrial school for years just for not going to school and was abused also but like Jesus I have learned to forgive but not forget I always say those abusers will have to face judgement some day but overall I feel so sorry for Christina for the way it has affected her
@ joeythelad, i agree with you , i found it difficult to watch as christina’s pain is very evident and of course well founded. i was also surprised with the response she got in the pub , dont why ? what i find surprising is that many people either dont know that she is irish or dont know anything about her work at all!
i hope herself and her family have the time they need to try and bond and she finds some peace. so glad that you have learned to forgive , i am not so sure i could forgive, all the best
What a great woman
Nice house in Texas as well
denise, did you watch the programme? what has her brothers house in texas got to do with it? such an odd comment for this story!
I know,Denise !
What should we do about it ? Genuine question .
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