Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendment No. 102, which basically has the same effect as Deputy Collins's amendment, except it does not allow blame to be put on the applicant. The Minister of State will probably indicate in response that the intention of the Bill is that all decisions will be made within six months so this does not arise. Seeing is believing and I certainly do not believe it. I would very much like to be in a position where all decisions would be made within six months but no extra resources will be made available within the system to process applications. The system cannot deal with the people it has now but that argument can be turned around by blaming the applicants and saying they use the courts system and everything else to slow down the process.

I put down a Private Member's motion a while back and at that stage the Minister of State probably echoed the working group's recommendation that people should have access to the labour market after a certain period if their application has not been decided. It is a basic principle that makes sense. It would be great if the amendment is accepted and all applications would be decided within six months as it would mean that this element would never have to be used. There cannot be any unintended consequences of this amendment because its provisions will never be used if the Government's logic is correct. Everything will be done and dusted three months before it would be needed.

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