Mr. Noel Dowling:

On a broad statistical point, the number in direct provision has been going down for a number of years but the proportion staying longer has gone up. There is a hard core of people whose situation is very difficult to resolve. Many of them may be involved in judicial review, which can take a long period of time to resolve. While the numbers are decreasing, the proportion of people who have been there for a long period is staying. Factors that produce that length of time are still there and, to a large extent, it is connected to deportation orders not effected and judicial review. The general point made by the Minister of State is that the working group under theme three is looking at the issue of long-stay people. That is an important point to note.