The end of direct provision

The ending of the system of direct provision was said to be one of the Green Party’s red lines for entering government. With that aim now enshrined in the Programme for Government, but likely to take some time to achieve, eolas examines how the system could be reformed in the meantime.

The Programme for Government (PfG) commits to the ending of direct provision and replacing it with a “new international protection accommodation policy, centred on a not-for-profit approach”. A White Paper on the matter is due to be published before the end of 2020, with “annualised capital and current investment” set to fund whatever changes are outlined. €235 million was pledged towards Direct Provision and accommodating asylum seekers in Budget 2021.

The PfG states that the tri-party government is “committed to ensuring that Ireland provides protection to those seeking refuge from conflict and persecution as is required under international law” and that they “agree that the current system needs to change”. The document points to the previous Fine Gael government’s appointment of the Expert Group on the Provision of Support, including Accommodation, to Persons in the International Protection Process (Asylum Seekers), chaired by Catherine Day, the former Secretary General of the European Commission.

The White Paper due to be published will be “informed by the recommendations of the Expert Group” as it seeks to “set out how this new system will be structured and the steps to achieving it”. In the “short term”, the PfG pledges to act on interim recommendations from Catherine Day to “improve conditions for asylum seekers currently living in the system”.

These short-term changes will include constant vulnerability assessments, the granting of the right to work, the ability to apply for driver’s licenses and bank accounts, an independent inspection process, measures to reduce the length of time taken to process decisions on asylum seeker status, the provision of mental health services for those within the system and the compulsory training of managers of direct provision centres.

Not mentioned within the PfG is the Expert Group’s recommendations that binding standards for all direct provision centres be applied and enforced by January 2021 and that the Government move away from the use of emergency accommodation as part of the system. The PfG does however pledge to “implement the measures identified by the Expert Group to ensure that international protection applicants are dealt with and brought to finality as quickly as possible, while always ensuring fair procedure and a humane, rights-based approach”. Following tensions in various locations over the placement of direct provision centres around the country, the Programme also pledges to “develop new models of community engagement to ensure that the establishment of new accommodation is done in an inclusive and welcoming fashion”.

Speaking to Green Party members after the drafting of the PfG, Roderic O’Gorman TD, one of the party’s main negotiators who would later be named Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, said: “That’s not going to be easy and we shouldn’t fool ourselves, it is a big job. There are 7,700 people who need to be provided with alternative accommodation, but it will be centred on the not-for-profit model, so no more of this private operators creaming off profits.”

How these reforms will take shape is not yet known, with the publication of the White Paper set to be the first great indicator of the direction the Government plans on taking with the reform of a system that has been a constant source of criticism, both domestic and international, since its inception. It has been reported that there is a divergence of opinion within Government with regard to the best way to approach the issue, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael wishing to place an emphasis on the reduction of the length of time asylum seekers stay within the system, while the Green Party want the system to be entirely changed rather than improved upon, marking the PfG’s pledge for a shift to a not-for-profit model as a major victory for the party in the government negotiations.

That’s not going to be easy and we shouldn’t fool ourselves, it is a big job. There are 7,700 people who need to be provided with alternative accommodation, but it will be centred on the not-for-profit model, so no more of this private operators creaming off profits.

— Roderic O’Gorman TD, Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration

The Green Party are seeking to deliver accommodation for asylum seekers through existing or new approved housing bodes rather than private operators, with asylum seekers eligible for Housing Assistance Payment-like allowances and on the receiving end of local authority support in order to find homes. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are, however, said to be more open to the idea of own-door and self-catering accommodation; it is assumed that any solution that will be arrived at will comprise a mixture of the two options being discussed.

Fine Gael TD and Minister for Justice and Equality in the last government, Charlie Flanagan has warned against “amnesties and free-for-alls”, saying that Ireland “must have a rules-based system”. Flanagan also said that he would “like all applications dealt with within six to nine months of arrival”.

The cost of ending the system of direct provision is currently unknown and will most likely be estimated or ordered to be queried within the White Paper. A 2010 report into the matter estimated that an own-door system would cost the State twice as much as direct provision did at the time. It is estimated that the system will cost the State around €200 million in 2020.

The Oireachtas Committee on Justice’s 2019 report into direct provision highlighted just how enmeshed private operators are within the system and the scope of the task at hand to fully transition to not-for-profit status: only three of the State’s 39 direct provision centres were purpose-built by the State, the remaining 36 are privately operated. The report criticised the “lack of transparency and public oversight” of the private companies, while saying that Oireachtas members had cast doubt on whether or not the operators should be “delivering vital services to particularly vulnerable people”.

Within the EU, the direct provision model is increasingly common, with the Netherlands employing a system that is often cited as being extremely similar to Ireland’s, although Dutch residents have more independence, including their own kitchens. Only some Irish centres have self-catering kitchens, although all are required to have them by 2021. People are also known to be kept in direct provisions for far longer in Ireland, some for a decade; in contrast, a 2017 ruling by Belgian court auditors found that the Belgian average of refugees spending 13 months in reception centres was “far too long”.

In a statement after the publication of the PfG, the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) said that it “welcomes the inclusion of ending the abhorrent system of direct provision”, but that it was “troubled by the interim measures”. “The interim recommendations which are also cited in the PfG do not adequately address the core issues in direct provision such as the poverty asylum-seeking children are forced to endure,” MASI said, pointing to calls to increase the “petty” weekly allowance claimed by asylum seekers from €38.80 per week to €58.80 that were rejected by the Government.

Nick Henderson, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, also welcomed the commitment to ending the system, but warned that “there have been false dawns in the past however and implementation will be crucial”. He added: “Disentangling ourselves from a 20-year-old system that currently accommodates 7,700 people across 84 locations is a huge, but essential, challenge.”