Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will ask my remaining questions together. The first relates to an issue that arose on Question Time earlier. A number of additional direct provision centres have been opened recently but it is difficult for people to travel from sites such as Moville, Kenmare and Lisdoonvarna to Dublin and back within a day. Will the Minister elaborate on plans to relocate some of the facilities in Dublin to the centres? In addition, are there plans to provide direct transport to services that cannot be moved such as an appeals tribunal hearing in Dublin, and will the Minister provide details on that?

Second, the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland anticipates substantial time commitments for the Garda being transferred to other bodies, for example, the Courts Service in the case of the transportation of prisoners to court, as well as a number of other obligations. Clearly that will create savings in time and money for the Garda but does this budget foresee any additional burdens on the Prison Service and the Courts Service arising from these organisations taking on responsibilities that were previously those of the Garda?

Third, a point that has been raised on a number of occasions by the National Women's Council of Ireland is the lack of contact centres for supervised access for family visitation and so forth. Currently, there is funding from Tusla where there is a child protection issue, but where there is no such issue, there is no stream of funding or pilot scheme.

Some facilities and family resource centres have even done this off their own bat, but it means that where there is no child protection issue, it is very difficult for a judge in a family court to refer for supervised access in a contact centre of that kind. It is different where there is a child protection issue involved. Tusla would fund that. Where there is not an issue, the option does not exist in practice unless they can finance it themselves, and these things are not cheap. This is something that would be in the interests of the proper functioning of the family courts, in the interests of the family courts, and in the interests of these families. Does the Department intend to do something to further that?