State is failing asylum seekers, finds committee

THE state is not adequately providing for aspects of asylum seeker welfare, according to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, whose members visited two controversial direct provision centres yesterday.

Particular concern was expressed about the failure of the Department of Justice’s Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) to adequately consult with medical professionals over the proposed transfer of over 100 asylum seekers from the Mosney centre in Meath to a centre in Dublin earlier this month.

Committee chairman Sean O’Fearghail said visits to the Mosney centre and St Patrick’s in Co Monaghan had been ” a real eye opener”.