Recent claims that asylum-seekers are frequently malnourished because of inadequate diets or a reluctance to eat Irish food are "irresponsible", according to the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue.
Mr O'Donoghue "emphatically rejected" this claim. Of the "many misleading claims" made about the asylum process, this was "the most irresponsible of the lot," he said.
"Accommodation providers and other companies engaged by the State to meet the accommodation and food needs of asylum-seekers are required under contract to `meet the reasonable needs of different ethnic groups' at each centre", he said.
"They are also required to cycle menus . . . these provisions are monitored very strictly by the Reception and Integration Agency".