Mr. Stephen Kirwan:

I wish to say again that both Ms Gibney and Mr. O’Dwyer, as always, are bang on the money on this issue. It is a systemic problem. There are individuals doing great work and individual centres such as Knockalisheen in Athlone, and Mr. O’Dwyer mentioned Roscommon, but the system itself is the problem. Until we grapple with that and until we stop - to use Deputy Buckley’s words - being penny-wise and pound-foolish and stop taking that attitude, we are never going to get out of this problem. The Day report made it very clear that there is a very significant backlog of applicants. They are not going anywhere or we certainly cannot start to address the problems going forward until we address the systemic issues that are there.

I commend my colleagues in IHREC on their fantastic work in the area, and for highlighting those issues.