TRALEE International Resource Centre (TIRC) are organising a seminar that will focus on children living in Direct Provision (DP).
The event, which will take place on Friday, June 19 from 11am-1.30pm in St John’s Pastoral Centre, Ashe St, Tralee, will be entitled ‘Lost Childhoods’.
The day will feature speakers from the ‘Health Information and Quality Authority’ (HIQA), a local primary school principal, and Teresa O’Donovan who is General Manager Kerry of Primary Care & Integrated Services HSE.
“Our aim is to shine a spotlight on the impacts of DP on children and to pass on any findings from the seminar to the responsible Minister, Aodhain O’Riordain, TD,” said Kristine Silina, the recently elected Chairperson of TIRC.
“We are organising this seminar on the back of a recent damning report by the health watchdog HIQA which revealed how one in every seven child living in direct provision centres had to be referred to social services in a single year,” she continued.
The most recent report from the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) states that there are 1,482 children (under age 18) living in DP.
According to the Irish Refugee Council’s report, ‘Counting the Cost’, which was published last year, the average time spent in Direct Provision is three years with some waiting as long as seven years for a decision.
With 35% of children in DP under the age of 4yrs, the DP way of life is all they know.
For further information and to book a place at the seminar on June 19th, please contact TIRC at 066 7127918, info@tirc.ie or on their website here.
