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Researchers in the Masters of Law programme at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway have launched a project entitled ‘Ask About Direct Provision’ where they will publish election candidates’ views on Direct Provision using a twitter page and the hashtag #AskAboutDP. 

Update: A website has also been created which provides information to the general public about Direct Provision and suggests questions to ask election candidates and their canvassers. The 'Ask About Direct Provision' website also records the responses received. 

This project is part of the new Human Rights Law Clinic in the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUIG, where students work in partnership with voluntary, community-based groups to achieve human rights-based social change. 

Stacy Wrenn, one of the group of LLM researchers who created the #AskAboutDP project, said: 

‘Ask About Direct Provision is a project coordinated by a group of LLM student researchers in the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway. We are working in partnership with the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), to put a spotlight on the direct provision system for the 2020 General Election.’

She continued: ‘As the twentieth anniversary of this supposedly ‘temporary’ system looms over us, we feel it is more important than ever that election candidates are held to account on their promises. Housing and healthcare are rightly dominating election discussion at the moment. Appropriate housing and healthcare are hugely important for people who come to Ireland seeking international protection, as is their right under international and European law.’ 

The aims of this project are to:

• Encourage people to ask candidates about Direct Provision 
• Make Direct Provision a key election issue
• Inform the public of candidates’ stances on Direct Provision 
• Highlight some key human rights issues regarding Direct Provision

To achieve this, the NUIG group is contacting candidates nationwide to establish their position on the direct provision system, and making their responses publicly available on our Twitter page [@AskAboutDP]. The researchers will not be endorsing any candidates or political parties. They will share candidates’ responses without redaction. The researchers will also be providing information on both the lived experiences of asylum seekers in Ireland and the human rights-related impacts of Direct Provision, giving the public access to existing reports on the system in an accessible manner. 

Read more: Sorcha Pollak, 'NUIG researchers call on election candidates to lay out direct provision plans' The Irish Times (27 January 2020)