Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It still has not been commenced in full. The system where people are deemed wards of court is progressing until such a time as this office is up and running. We clarified that recently. The final two matters are Garda overtime and the cost of the asylum process. I welcome the fact that there are two committees. I wish that they had been set up much earlier in a proactive manner. The increasing numbers in direct provision is unacceptable. It was eminently foreseeable by the Department. We raised it many times at the Committee of Public Accounts and we have asked for forward planning. Subject to being corrected by the Department, some 847 currently have permission to stay, and while I do not like the word "stuck", they have to remain in the direct provision system, which is unacceptable. We have 1,500, or one less, in emergency accommodation. If we look at the past 20 years, with the Committee of Public Accounts having published a quarterly report recently, since it was brought in as a temporary measure, this year is no higher than other years. There were three or four years where the figures were also very high. If one looks at the graph for the 20-year period, it was eminently foreseeable that there would be ups and downs in the numbers that we have to take under our obligations. At this stage, we have set up two committees. The Minister said in his opening statement that one would report in January. Is that correct?