Direct Provision: Failure to follow through on decisions hurts the vulnerable

It should have been easy to decide on an allowance increase for those in Direct Provision. However, these people have been let down again, writes Sue Conlon            

In October Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and Minister of State Aodhán Ó Ríordáin announced the membership of a working group on the protection process, tasked with making recommendations to ministers on reform of the international protection system in Ireland.

The working group first met in mid-November, by which time a secretariat had been established consisting of four civil servants seconded from the Department of Justice (asylum policy, Reception and Integration Agency, and family reunification) and the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner. At the first meeting, the working group was advised that its deliberations would be broken into three: Living conditions, supports and services, and the protection process, with an expectation that an interim report would go to the ministers by Christmas and a final report by Easter.