James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct. People who seek refuge in this country have often experienced traumatic events that have led them to seek the protection of another state. The White Paper proposes that the new system should be operational by 2023. My Department will be represented on a programme board to be established and chaired by my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, which will set performance indicators for the new model and monitor progress against those indicators. My Department is responsible for progressing improvements in processing times for international protection applications in the intervening period and we will not be found wanting in that regard. Any decisions on accommodation, including future arrangements for any existing centre, are, of course, a matter for the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.

The Deputy has raised an important point. In bringing in all of these new processes, we must always keep in mind the people who are affected, namely, the people seeking refuge and the local communities. We must ensure that both of those communities are supported and put into a place of being able to integrate and support each other.

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