Ms Oonagh Buckley:

In point of fact, 773 people presented seeking international protection over the course of the first few months of this year. The numbers have fallen off in the last month or so but we were still getting a steady stream of people applying for international protection and seeking to access the accommodation services up until the middle of April. As soon as any travel restrictions are lifted, that flow will happen again. We have consistently allowed people to apply for asylum and we have never stopped that. However, we have had to restrict a lot of access to our buildings. Unfortunately, the Department's systems are largely paper-based and that has very much restricted our capacity to take decisions. We are actively planning for a resumption of that work, which should allow us to resume taking decisions, particularly positive decisions that we hope will allow people the opportunity to move on with their lives.