Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It will not happen. As the Deputy will know, we published a White Paper. Since then, my Department has taken a significant number of steps to implement these reforms. A staff team was established in my Department to lead the transition to the new model. It has developed a detailed implementation plan.

We have a programme board, chaired by my Department, which has Government and independent membership. This will provide detailed oversight and advice to the implementation team. At the moment it is meeting monthly to review and monitor the progress of the reports.

I recently announced the membership of the three-person independent advisory group to monitor and report independently on my Department's work and that of other Departments in terms of implementing the White Paper. It is made up of really eminent people, including Dr. Catherine Day, Dr. David Donoghue and Dr. Lorcan Sirr, experts in the area of direct provision, international human rights law and housing, all of whom are essential in terms of delivering this plan. The status of those three individuals will give real confidence in respect of their independent oversight. No doubt sometimes it will be critical oversight. That is really important.

I want to recognise the work my Department has done with the Housing Agency. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, opened its resources up to us and it is working with us in terms of designing specific housing needs because housing is absolutely key in addressing this particular issue. We have access to the expertise in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in terms of designing new funding mechanisms, sourcing accommodation and designing new ownership models.

My Department has also begun work on an integration policy. Key to the White Paper is the idea of integration from day one. Irrespective of whether somebody gets a final decision of status, we will seek to integrate that person into his or her community from day one. It will take time to end direct provision. We have always said that the date will be the end of 2024. Some people say that is too long. It is an ambitious timeline to make as big a change as we are setting out, but I am absolutely committed to ending direct provision and having a new international protection support service in place by the end of 2024.

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