Mr. Colm O'Dwyer:

I want to follow up on what Professor Lynch said about timelines and plans. It has struck me, and it would be important for the committee to consider, that a lot of what is planned in the White Paper in terms of accommodation, particularly these reception centres where the people will go initially, although not specifically stated, will have to be built. They will have to be new because of the nature of them. It is not as if we have a provision of existing infrastructure. Given the way planning and other systems are working in terms of building, the way construction is so slow and the difficulties with getting construction workers, but primarily planning, means you really would have to be looking at movement on a lot of these projects now. These will be large reception centres. To have them built, finished and ready, even by 2024, would surely involve a lot of planning work now. There may be objections, of course. There might be all these issues. How are they going to get through planning? Are they going to require planning from the local councils? These are important actions that need to be taken now. We are almost towards the end of 2021. We all know big projects like these nowadays can easily take three years, effectively, from start to finish. Never mind the first sod; I am not talking about that. I am talking about before that: the planning, objections, possible challenges in court, all of this type of thing.

I encourage this committee, when it meets with the Minister, to look to have plans with real stages in them for all of these types of activities, in relation to the capital spend, rather than leaving it until 2023. We do not want a situation where we have not been able to get planning permission for centres, so therefore a number of the centres will not be ready, or anything like that. A lot of the work has to be put in now, as far as I see it. This committee could look closely at that: what would actually be involved today in getting those places, how many of them, where, how will they be built and ready by 2024, what does the Minister say about that, and what are the plans. I commend what Professor Lynch said about this committee trying to assist with or push the issue of actual concrete plans for action on those longer term ideas in the White Paper.

I thank the committee for having us here today.