Mr. Liam Herrick:

Just to say at the outset that there are areas where the general scheme goes further than is required by the pact in ways that we believe will diminish people's rights. There are other areas where it does not go far enough, and there are large and very fundamental areas on which it is silent but will have to address. For example, as the Deputy has just heard, there is the question of setting out what the mechanism for age assessment will be, who will carry it out and be responsible for it. That is fundamental. I think it is a mixture. All EU states are going to have to transpose by June next year so it is a challenge for everybody.

One of the difficulties is the late publication of the general scheme as well. It has not made this easy. We understand the pressures the Department is under. This is a very complex and wide-ranging piece of legislation, one of the largest that this Government is going to have to try to bring forward. There is a short window now for the committee to do some work on identifying some key issues, which hopefully can be resolved by the time the Bill is published. We understand the intention is to publish the Bill by the end of the year, so the time is pretty short.