Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister mentioned the progress made in bringing people here from Greece and Lebanon. Will he update us on the position in bringing refugees here from Italy? I know from the replies to previous questions that the former Minister had articulated a concern that the nature of our relationship and work with the Italian authorities had slowed down the arrival of refugees. Will the Minister provide an update of how that section of refugees have been catered for under the programme?

The numbers the Minister has given are interesting. Some 602 persons are in emergency reception centres, while 709 have been resettled. Is the Minister happy with these figures? Having visited some centres, I am concerned that the time taken to get people from resettlement centres into the community has been longer than the ideal and that while the centres are doing a good job and the people running them are doing their best, support services in providing language training and for orientation have not been as rigorous and as intensive as they should be. Will the Minister update me on whether he is happy with how the emergency centres are working and the speed at which people are being settled in the community?

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