Dr. Fergal Lynch:

I thank the Deputy for making a very important point about the needs and special needs of people arriving to our shores. We are very conscious of the stress that they have been through, that they may have mental health issues and that they may well have other needs. They are likely to be vulnerable people and they do not come here for nothing. As the Deputy said, they do not come here for holiday. We completely agree and we want to treat them with absolute respect and dignity and to provide them with the best possible service we can to help integrate them into the community. We talk about integration from day one, which is something on which we place a significant emphasis in the White Paper.

On the services available, when people arrive, one of the first things each person will be offered is a vulnerability assessment. These vulnerability assessments have been taking place for all new arrivals since February of this year. They are an important initial component of the service we provide to them. We then, as appropriate, link people who have mental health needs to mental health services, including engaging with a number of mental health organisations. We also link with the HSE and with health teams. It is not simply a case of seeking to accommodate people in a particular place when they arrive and leaving it at that. We place a great emphasis on what their needs are, be they mental, physical or otherwise. We then try to agree with them the best supports we possibly can provide and to provide those services as best we can. That very much includes mental health services.

I could not agree more in regard to people's willingness to work. The emphasis must be on their ability and willingness to work because we all know they are very interested in working, and in the great majority of cases, they can do so. As the Deputy said, many of them are well qualified. One of the good things that has happened in regard to the right to work, or the work permit, is that the timescale has been reduced from nine months to six months. They can seek work after that and we will support them in terms of training and access to employment after six months within the international protection system. Those are some of the things we are anxious to offer when people arrive on our shores.