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	&Oacute; Riord&aacute;in says asylum seekers spending years waiting for decision is a &lsquo;major concern&rsquo;.</p>
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	Reform of the &ldquo;direct provision&rdquo; system - asylum seekers can spend up to nine years waiting for a decision on their application with no right to work or study &ndash; will be a top priority for the new Minister of State for Justice.</p>
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	Aodh&aacute;n &Oacute; Riord&aacute;in, in an interview with The Irish Times, said direct provision was identified as a &ldquo;major concern&rdquo; by T&aacute;naiste Joan Burton when she appointed him last week. He is also the new Minister of State for Equality and New Communities.</p>
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	&ldquo;Direct provision needs radical reform. It is unacceptable that a child could spend half their life in a direct provision centre &ndash; in poverty, marginalised, stigmatised.</p>
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	&ldquo;I will be working closely with the Minister [for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald] and officials on this. A lot of work has in fact already been done, and there is an awareness within the department it has to change.</p>
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	&ldquo;I plan to visit a number of centres in the next few weeks and to have proposals on short-term solutions in September or early October.&rdquo;</p>
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	Reception centres<br />
	Under direct provision asylum seekers are accommodated in &ldquo;reception centres&rdquo; around the State. All meals are provided, and adults get a weekly allowance of &euro;19.10 and children &euro;9.60.</p>
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	The system has been criticised for the isolation, boredom, lack of control over meals and lack of privacy.</p>
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	Mr &Oacute; Riord&aacute;in is &ldquo;open to suggestions&rdquo; on reforms, but emphasises the immediate need to shorten the time people spend in the system.</p>
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	Responding to arguments that the system provides for basic needs without creating a &ldquo;pull&rdquo; to economic migrants, he says &ldquo;it has to be a system that works for society but also treats people with respect&rdquo;.</p>
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	A second priority will be passing a referendum on same-sex marriage next year.</p>
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	&ldquo;It could be lost. It&rsquo;s going to be one hell of a battle to win it. There&rsquo;s complacency it will be won, and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s necessarily the case.</p>
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	&ldquo;The argument against it will be that it will change too much, but the argument for it has to be that it won&rsquo;t change anything, that these families are here and functioning but the children at the centre of them have no constitutional protection.&rdquo;</p>
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	He would like to deliver Traveller ethnicity, seeing it as &ldquo;an important statement of affirmative support for Travellers&rdquo;.</p>
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	Politically, however, &ldquo;hearts and minds still have to be won on it&rdquo;, he says, despite a report from the Oireachtas Committee on Justice in April that Traveller ethnicity be recognised.</p>
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	&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t be enough to just name Travellers as an ethnic minority. There has to also be appropriate education supports. Housing needs have to be met.</p>
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	More support<br />
	&ldquo;Equality does not mean treating everybody the same. That won&rsquo;t achieve a decent, fair society because some in our society are weaker, need more support, more of a leg-up, just to get to the same starting point as those who have easy access to good schools and to mainstream media.&rdquo;</p>
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	He said he owes his passionate belief in a fair society both to his Catholic upbringing and to his time teaching in St Laurence O&rsquo;Toole national school in Dublin&rsquo;s Sheriff Street.<br />
	&ldquo;This country has been ruled by people like me &ndash; male, white, middle-class, Catholic, heterosexual, able-bodied, settled.</p>
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	&ldquo;When I started teaching I saw kids who were brighter than me, more capable, but who would be prevented from achieving all they could only because society told them they weren&rsquo;t good enough.</p>
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	&ldquo;When the rest of society tells you you&rsquo;re not allowed from the age of six or seven, that seeps into the bones, that debilitates for the rest of your life.</p>
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	&ldquo;That is bad for society. When whole sections of the population are not achieving their potential &ndash; that is bad for the economy, for society, for everyone.&rdquo;</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/reform-of-direct-provision-a-priority-says-new-minister-1.1874984">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/reform-of-direct-provision-a-priority-says-new-minister-1.1874984</a></p>
