Schools.

Sentiment score: 0.00

In his opening comments, the Minister said that the Government fundamentally believes in the right to claim asylum, yet, this legislation brings us in exactly the opposite direction as a State. That has been the case since we have seen this Government take office, where we have simply seen an attack on international protection as a concept, and language and rhetoric that demonises people in their most vulnerable moment, despite our history and our own experience as a people. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Minister is jumping on this opportunity. We did not have to take on all of the modules of the EU migration and asylum pact. We know that. We were an exception, and this Government chose to do it. Not only that, it is choosing to interpret it in such a way that this legislation that will make our system one of the most severe in Europe. It is not surprising to me because, for multiple governments now, we have seen that they, as governments, have had to be dragged kicking and screaming or pushed by the courts to recognise any rights within the international protection space. We have never, ever got to a point of meeting either our domestic or international obligations, and we certainly have never got to a humane and dignified system that recognises the difficulty people experience when they are in this system. Instead, under the banner of efficiency, speed and fairness, we are seeing a system that is going to dehumanise people, detain them and further take away their basic rights because that is the direction in which we are headed. The letter and the spirit of this legislation are about curbing the right to claim asylum. Even if the Minister does not believe us in the Opposition, he should believe civil society. There are very well-documented and well-articulated concerns, which include that there are significant gaps remaining in this legislation that undermine the scrutiny within the legislative process. We know that because, for example, there is now nothing remaining on family reunification and that is just not good enough with such an important piece of legislation. The detention of an unaccompanied child will be permitted under this legislation. That is absolutely incredible. This Bill creates overarching and disproportionate power of the Minister across the protection process. The information provision to the applicant is unclear. Many recommendations of the justice committee are not implemented, and key safeguards are still absent. Age assessment provisions are unclear and missing key principles of child age-assessment safeguarding. Vulnerability assessments are only preliminary and not ongoing. Oral appeals are allowed only if deemed necessary. There is a rake of concerns coming through from the experts in this field who deal with international protection on a daily basis. The reality is that we do not have to be like this. We could go in the other direction. We might look at Spain. It is naturalising people who have been there. It is welcoming the concept of international protection and what it does for an ageing and growing population, which is exactly what we should be doing.

Sentiment score: -0.01