Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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509. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if, in view of the well-established and well-documented human rights and value for money concerns that have been in the public domain for many years, as well as the need to meet Ireland's obligations with respect to international standards on refugee reception, her plans to replace the direct provision system; if not, her reasons; and if so, if she will provide the anticipated timeframe for its replacement. [41336/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) of my Department is responsible for the accommodation of protection applicants in accordance with the Government policy of direct provision and dispersal. Direct provision provides for full board accommodation supports while a final decision is awaited by a person on their protection or any related leave to remain application. At 12 October, 2014, there were 4,309 persons residing in 34 asylum accommodation centres under contract to RIA. The number of asylum seekers this year is currently running at 40% higher than last. This, invariably, creates additional pressures and challenges for the State.

The Statement of Government Priorities 2014 – 2016 contains a number of commitments in the area of asylum. One of these commitments is to establish an independent Working Group to report to Government on improvements with the protection process, including Direct Provision and supports for asylum seekers. The terms of reference and Membership of the Working Group - chaired by retired Judge, Bryan McMahon - were announced last week and these can be found on the website of the Reception & Integration Agency - www.ria.gov.ie.

Among the issues to be considered by the Working Group is the length of time persons spend in the protection applications system, the non-execution of deportation orders and the impacts that court proceedings have on the finalisation of decisions. Plainly, I cannot anticipate at this stage what the findings of the Working Group will be. A further commitment in the Statement of Government Priorities is to introduce a Protection Bill to establish a single application procedure. Work on the Bill is ongoing in the Minister’s Department and the expectation is that the Bill will be published at the start of 2015 and enacted by early 2015. In preparing the Bill, my Department is also examining to what extent the new single procedure can be applied to persons currently in the protection determination process.