Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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"Pull factor" is a favoured phrase of the Department of Justice since my term there. I used to think that it almost needed to be painted on a wall of the Department of Justice, just to remind people what the main worries of the Department of Justice were. Anyway, that is just me being mischievous.

Every time we have had this discussion over the last 20 to 25 years or so, every new initiative from the Department or a Minister said that they were going to shorten the time in which applicants would get their application processed. I remember when the International Protection Act 2015 was brought in, the same suggestions were made, namely, that this would radically bring down the application time without any infringements on the right to seek asylum or the appeals system. Why should we be more confident that this one will work when the other one did not necessarily work?