Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking on the section. The Irish Refugee Council has recommended that more clarity be provided with respect to where the preliminary interview is conducted and by whom. I have seen examples from Portugal. Senator Conway and I visited the Portuguese refugee council at one stage and we had extensive discussions with both the legal and non-governmental organisations involved . They had an agreed protocol whereby police personnel and a person from a non-governmental organisation would both be present when the interviews were being conducted. There were agreed protocols on how it could be done and it seemed to be a very satisfactory process. If we had proper time to discuss this on Report Stage, we would like to reintroduce this amendment, or perhaps the Minister of State might like to reconsider it. Perhaps he could reconsider the 7 p.m. guillotine in that respect, as this could be taken into consideration. We should examine different models that work in other European countries.