Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

Significant refurbishment was done and the facilities were very good, it seemed to me, especially around education and health, the fact that people have individual doors and can do their own cooking. We have moved to a situation whereby already more than 50% of people in accommodation centres can do their own cooking. We are trying to move to a point where everyone will be in that position. This has, rightly, been a sensitive issue. People want to have that independence of action.

I am keen to make one point though. What is acceptable for accommodation for someone for a short time is different to what is acceptable for someone for accommodation for a long period. Numerous issues intersect here. One relates to standards in the facilities. As has already been pointed out, they are being substantially enhanced. Under the new tender arrangements, the standards are higher again. All involve cooking facilities and so on.

The second point relates to the question the speed with which applications are processed. We go through the International Protection Office, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and so on. We are also trying to address that. In other words, we are trying to get faster movement through the system so that people do not end up staying in the facilities for a long time. There has been significant improvement in this in recent years, but there is a great deal more to be done. We want to get to a point where people spend a relatively short time – I am referring to periods of months rather than years – in these facilities while they are waiting for a first decision and perhaps appeal to the tribunal. The next step beyond that is where people choose to take judicial review. That is more difficult to predict. We certainly want a situation whereby people are not in these facilities long-term. I am simply making the point that a facility that one would consider acceptable for a short-term period is different from a facility that we would want people to be in long term.