Direct Provision

Government must pursue plans to end direct provision, says Catherine Day

Former European Commission secretary-general Catherine Day says Ukrainian War must not derail essential abolition of controversial system for dealing with asylum seekers

Catherine Day: ‘You can’t just put the plan [to end direct provision] on hold or put it on a shelf and forget about it.’ Picture: RollingNews

The plan to end direct provision must continue despite the added pressures brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Catherine Day.

Day, a former secretary general of the European Commission, was chair of the advisory group on direct provision which delivered a report in 2020 calling for its abolition. Direct provision is the accommodation and processing system that has been in place for asylum seekers in Ireland since the late 1990s.

The government ...