Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Therein lies the lunacy of the Government's approach, although I know the officials cannot comment on that. We have been told by the Minister that the majority of people seeking international protection who enter this State come from the common travel area rather than the EU framework yet we are devising an entire immigration system and Bill in the context of the latter rather than the former.

On the stipulation, will the Department officials clarify whether the general scheme is pointing to maximum periods for processing applications and appeals? If that is the case, what will those limits be?