Covid-19 outbreaks should ‘act as catalyst’ to end direct provision

Residents of the Skellig Star direct provision centre protest conditions at the Caherciveen facility. Picture: Alan Landers.

Covid-19 outbreaks in "vulnerable" accommodation centres where asylum seekers live in shared spaces should “act as a catalyst” to end the direct provision system, a priest in the midlands has said.

Abbeyleix parish priest Fr Paddy Byrne said recent Covid-19 outbreaks in counties Laois, Offaly and Kildare, highlight the “awful realities” facing asylum seekers, many of whom work in local meat plants.