"My government colleagues, Minister Stanton and I are all fully committed to the opt-in to the EU Reception Conditions Directive. The Directive provides enhanced protections and supports for applicants and their families while they await a final decision on their application. It goes beyond the narrow scope of simply providing for access to the labour market, which was all that was required of us by the Supreme Court. Instead, we chose to be ambitious and to align our system with the many important provisions found in the Directive, such as children’s rights, healthcare, education and material reception conditions."