Ms Bernie McNally:

That is an area about which the previous Ombudsman spoke. In many other jurisdictions ombudsmen have jurisdiction in the asylum area. It was considered for inclusion in the last Bill, but that legislation had been in preparation for 24 years. In the end, the previous Ombudsman made a decision that perhaps it was better to make progress on the less controversial issues and revisit the more controversial ones. At the time the Department of Justice and Equality had other plans and because we gathered from our colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that there could be some resistance to the Ombudsman having jurisdiction in the area, we considered it might be one to which we could come back. It is one the new Ombudsman would like to revisit. He has had some early discussions with the Department which introduces legislation for our office.