Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and I thank them for the opening statement. I, too, join colleagues in paying tribute to those who have lost their lives in the tragedy in the English Channel. If ever we needed a reminder of the need for a robust and efficient asylum system that is it. We know of other European countries that have been dealing with this on a daily basis, unfortunately, and of the loss of life at sea of those who are trying to cross waters. I join with the comments of the Chairman and others in that regard.

I thank Ms Buckley for her opening remarks in respect of which I have a number of questions. There has been a significant improvement in the engagement of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, with Members of the Oireachtas from the appointments system to updates on queries. I have experienced this myself. It is important to put that on the record. Like me, new Members of the House since 2020 have been grappling with the pandemic since then. The engagement from the INIS has, as I said, improved over the past number of months.

Ms Buckley mentioned that the new system should be operational by 2024. Given everything that we have experienced, that people are remote working and that the INIS system is in the main paper based, is that still on track?