Our Advocacy work takes two different aspects; political and personal.

Our Personal Advocacy is centred on people’s needs. Filling out forms and finding the right documents can be stressful and confusing at the best of times, let alone in a new country and often in a new language. At TIRC we try to offer as much guidance and help as we can with settling in to Irish life. We can help with filling out forms and advice on how to navigate bureaucracy, such as getting a PPSN number, finding a house and finding work.

Our political advocacy attempts to positively influence the bureaucracy that service users have to navigate. Our TIRC Advocacy group, which meets regularly, is made up of a number of agencies and interested individuals.  We work towards raising awareness of important issues that affect new migrants and Asylum Seekers. We made submissions to the Government’s Working Group on Direct Provision, which was set up to look at the asylum process and the Direct Provision system. TIRC met with the working group and made a formal submission, with our focus primarily on the impacts of Direct Provision on children.  We also made submissions and highlighted case studies in relation to the charges for prescriptions for Asylum Seekers.  Our focus on children in Direct Provision was continued through our seminar to mark World Refugee Day and subsequent letters to the Ministers for Children and Equality.