David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

She has not done that; rather, she has skittered around it. She uses emotion very cleverly. We are very careful in looking after people who come here. They receive help and support on the night. They are given a bed, board, food, heat and so forth. Education is also provided. No applicant is obliged to accept the offer of accommodation and related services and many do not. If a person has sufficient means, including if he or she has been working for a reasonable amount of time, he or she is free to source and provide his or her own accommodation if he or she has the resources to do so, but not everybody is in the position described by the Deputy. People can leave any time they wish. However, there is the offer. If someone arrives in Dublin Airport this evening and wants asylum, he or she will have a bed, food, heat and safety tonight. He or she will also have access to education for his or her children. We try to move people through the system as quickly as possible. As the Deputy well knows, we have changed the law since 2015 to speed up the decision-making process. The length of stay has changed. A total of 2,150 people have been in the system for less than one year. We are moving as hard as we can to make decisions as quickly as possible to help people to get on with their lives. That is what we all want to see happen.

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