Opening Statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality on the System of Direct Provision in Ireland

I thank the committee for the invitation to discuss the system of direct provision in Ireland. I am an associate professor in UCD School of Law, and human rights legal obligations and the system of direct provision has been a topic of my published research for some time.

I have provided the Committee with a full submission, and just wish to highlight some of my key recommendations which I invite the Committee to consider. These include recommendations on: better respecting and protecting the right to work; recognising direct provision as a gross violation on the rights of the child, and indeed all persons subjected to this system; increases to direct provision allowance/daily expenses allowance and the rights of aged-out separated children.