Mr. Michael Kirrane:

No. We cannot say because we are currently looking at all the options, whether it be State-owned property or going out to the market to find suitable accommodation. As I said previously, the intention is that people will remain in these centres for a relatively short period of time until their asylum cases have been processed. As to the conditions, we intend that the facilities will be the best that can be provided and the intention is that they will not be in these centres for long periods. Talk of ghettoisation is not what we have in mind. The intention is that people will come into the centres, stay for a relatively short period and then be dispersed in small numbers throughout the country so that everybody can manage how that is dealt with from an integration perspective and so on. The intention is not to have people in these centres for a very long period of time. There will be a flow. People will come, have their cases processed - it is over a two-year period - and move out and new people will come in.

On the Deputy's question on best practice, we have had discussions with the UNHCR on this topic and the reason for keeping people together is that it is easier and better to deliver services to people in a single group rather than trying to deliver that service in the initial stages where individuals are scattered throughout the country.

The EU instrument has a specific concern about secondary relocation, as it is called, namely, that services should be provided for people who are coming by way of benefit-in-kind, not through direct payments. There is a concern that people who will be relocated will want to move and relocate to another European country and, therefore, the European Commission sets out in its legal instrument that this is how we should approach it. From a humanitarian perspective and from a discussion with the UNHCR, it is regarded as best practice. Based on the requirements set down in the legal instruments, we are obliged to deliver services by way of benefit-in-kind rather than direct payment.