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

On regularisation, I am meeting the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, after oral questions to launch the regularisation scheme. I am very excited about that. It is an important development, for which my party pushed very strongly in negotiating the programme for Government. The Minister and Minister of State in the Department of Justice have shown great leadership in this area. It will be a life-changing experience for undocumented migrants to fully regularise their affairs and participate fully in society. I particularly welcome the fact that the measure has been extended to international protection applicants who have been in the system for more than two years. We estimate that there are 2,800 in that category. The mechanism will be significant in regularising the affairs of the very large number who are already in the process. Therefore, when we bring in all elements of the White Paper, we will have a smaller number and will be able to move more rapidly.

On Deputy Connolly's question, we have a programme board that works at a high level, in that it brings in staff from my Department and experts from other agencies. It oversees the implementation overall. The transition team, comprising civil servants in my Department, is working on a day-to-day basis on implementing the White Paper. The advisory group, comprising Dr. Catherine Day, Dr. Lorcan Sirr and Dr. David Donoghue, is overseeing what we are doing, criticising if we are getting it wrong and giving us a bit of guidance. The transition team is working from day to day, the programme board is engaged in implementation at cross-departmental and cross-agency levels and making sure all Departments are working away on this, and the advisory group, which I hope will give good reports on progress, is in place to flag failures to meet deadlines. Catherine Day has a track record in this area, David Donoghue has worked very much in the area of international human rights and Lorcan Sirr, as we all know, is an expert in housing. Therefore, the advisory group includes the key areas. As the Deputy said, housing will be essential in getting this right.

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