Ms Oonagh Buckley:

It is better that people are spread throughout the country and get to experience the whole country. That allows for the impact of migrants arriving in Ireland to be absorbed by the entire country. A classic example would be if we were to try to find accommodation for all of the children of migrants in Cork or Dublin alone, for example, but when it is spread out widely across the community the arrival of three or four migrant or asylum seeker children can be welcome in a school because it can mean keeping an extra teacher there, as the Senator will appreciate. The Minister’s White Paper on international protection is about changing that entire model and moving away from the congregated settings we used to date towards a system where people are given their own doors to go in behind so that they will have that comfort.