We can deliver a far better service for asylum-seekers in a cheaper and more coordinated way than the present system of direct provision, according to the Fine Gael spokesman on immigration.
Denis Naughten was speaking following the launch of a report by the legal rights organisation Flac on direct provision, whereby asylum-seekers are accommodated in hostel-type centres on a full-board basis. He said the report gave an opportunity to review the policy.
Referring to one of the findings of the report, he said: "No wonder people end up in the psychiatric services after five, six or seven years in direct provision. Those who have gone through the system and applied for leave to remain are an average of seven years in the process. Applications should be dealt with in a prompt way."
He told The Irish Times that resources should be put into clearing the back-log of applicants for leave to remain, as this separate stage had been done away with under the new Immigration Act, and there was now an integrated system for dealing with all the grounds for allowing people seek protection in Ireland.
Sue Conlan, the newly-appointed director of the Refugee Council, said: "An awful lot of money [in this system] has made people wealthy. The amount being spent on direct provision far exceeds what is needed to cater for people's needs in a better way."
She pointed out that the Comptroller and Auditor General had recognised that direct provision had been established as a system for dealing with the accommodation needs of asylum-seekers that "reflected the emergency nature of the evolving crisis." However, the system had now been in existence for 10 years.
The report had pointed out that in 2008 four of the five companies with the largest contracts from the Department of Justice, earning amounts ranging from €5.8 million to €14.1 million, had been in the business of providing accommodation for asylum seekers. She said that two of these companies were created solely for this purpose.
Vukosen Nedeljkovic, a refugee from Belgrade who spent almost three years in direct provision in Ballyhaunis, said it was "like living in a ghetto." "All are living in poverty," he said. "All clubs and activities cost money, so we could not socialise with Irish people. The UN states that children have the right to play, but there were no facilities for children."
He told the launch that the local GP said that half of those in direct provision were referred to psychiatric services.
Saoirse Brady, the author of the report for Flac, said it had originally been envisaged that people would spend no more than six months in this system, but many were now there for more than three years.
She said that before Christmas the Government had rushed through the Dáil a measure to close off access to supplementary welfare allowance for those in direct provision. It should be reintroduced and debated.