Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputies for raising this issue and want to reassure them as I reassured Senators earlier today. The first families will be moved by the end of next week and the remainder of the residents will be moved as soon as possible and as soon as places are found. I have gotten a commitment of no later than the end of the year but, obviously, the objective is as soon as accommodation can be found. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will follow through on that commitment when he takes on this area. Nobody will be moved in after them either.

The situation in Cahersiveen underscores the importance of the root and branch reform of the system for accommodation international protection applicants we are now undertaking and that is needed. The current system is far from perfect but I must outline the huge amount of progress that has been made. A huge amount of work has been done by many of my predecessors and those in the Department. The commitments we have made in the programme for Government now provide us with a unique opportunity to finally get this right after 20 years. We have committed to ending the current system of direct provision within the lifetime of the Government and replacing it with a new international protection accommodation policy which is focused on a not-for-profit approach. Responsibility will move from my Department to Deputy O'Gorman's but what we will see in the next month and a half is a report from Dr. Catherine Day.

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We have asked her to bring together an expert group to make recommendations from asylum seekers and NGOs, to examine best practice from other European states in the provision of services to international protection applicants, to examine likely longer-term trends and to set out recommendations and solutions. This report was due by the end of the year, but we have brought it forward and it is expected by the end of September. The intention then is to publish the White Paper by the end of this year, informed by the recommendations of the expert group which will set out how the replacement of direct provision will be structured and the steps to achieving this.

There is still some way to go. This is not something that can be changed overnight but we will continue to try to make progress to improve the current situation and to improve the lives of those in direct provision. We are talking about people here and we want to ensure they can get on with their lives while they are still going through this process. It is important that we have taken that step. In particular I am glad to say that the people in Cahersiveen have come back from the steps they were taking, and they are now eating. It is a matter of deep regret for me that it had to get to that point in the first instance.

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