Direct provision claims ‘potentially dangerous’

There can hardly be better proof of the correlation between the political ‘silly season’ and the fine weather than the current controversy about direct provision of asylum seekers.

Much has been made of the fact that some people and their Irish-born families have been in the system for up to a decade. Apart from the trademark state inefficiency in doing anything, they are there because they have chosen not to accept the answers given to their asylum application and appeal which were negative. These processes are now dealt with in 12 and 18 weeks, respectively, according to the 2013 ORAC/RAP reports. They are instead pursuing an eight-stage process at taxpayers’ expense which has resulted in over 849 appeals being listed at the High Court on June 14 and many more at Supreme Court level. The cost of this asylum industry in the last five years is €1.27bn, according to Minister Fitzgerald. Among the ‘rights’ being demanded for these ‘non-citizens’ are that they should be allowed work and attend free university education. Can you imagine the influx these pull-factors would generate? How many more ‘unaccompanied minors’ would appear to claim their third-level education, and more ‘workers’ for the dole queue? It is clear from the comments of the spokesman for the Kinsale Road, Cork centre as to what the real agenda is — cancellation of current deportation orders and no future deportations. This would mean effectively no state control over who stays in the country — once you’re in, you’re in for ever. Comments by the junior minister at justice that the system is “inhumane” are plainly inaccurate, and potentially dangerous.

Ted Neville