I do not have an exact timeline for that.

It is a really important debate we are having today, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to outline the benefits of the migration and asylum pact and to outline once again and to stress that inward migration has been hugely positive for Ireland. It has provided significant benefits to our economy and to our society. We can all see this in our hospitals, in our nursing homes, in our hospitality sector and in our agriculture and food processing sectors. We only have to look at the figures. Last year alone, 31,00…

I would not have done-----

I am not disputing that there is nothing that does not benefit us.

No we are not.

Lies.

That is not correct.

That is a complete lie.

I thank the Senator for raising such an important issue. This is something that is much more prevalent in our society than most people realise. There are people that we engage with on a daily or weekly or monthly basis who may be victims of trafficking and we are not even aware of it. It is really important that we not only reach out to victims to encourage them to come forward and that is something we are doing in a number of different ways I will outline but also that the general public can spot the signs and und…

The implementation plan is ongoing, and I think this needs to be just part of that ongoing action. The final pieces of the legislation will be enacted before the end of summer. My objective, beyond that, is that we will be able to have a targeted, focused campaign. We have a budget coming up and we have to look at the available resources. However, every year since I have been in the Department, we have made sure that in the funding I have secured there has been funding to raise awareness on specific issues related …

I thank the Deputy for continually raising this issue. The only way and the most important way in which the welfare of a child can be heard in family proceedings is through the various welfare reports and voice of the child reports. I have undertaken a review of those reports. I am pleased to say that review has come to Cabinet. There are 20 recommendations, separated between welfare reports and voice of the child reports. These recommendations will ensure, when a report is commissioned, we have a panel of assessor…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. He has been raising it for some time, for all the reasons that he outlined and the particular cases he just mentioned in respect of people working in the State already whose spouses or partners who want to work unfortunately cannot. Some spouses and partners want to be here and some of them are not with them here because they cannot work. As the Deputy said, I gave a commitment to respond and to engage with him because I believe we need to change this. I am pleased to rep…

I again thank the Deputy for raising this. The most important thing here is that it makes sense. Sometimes we just have to apply common sense to a situation that clearly does not work. It might be a small number but there are thousands of people living here who want to work but cannot and there are people here whose spouses or partners have not come with them because of the fact they cannot work or cannot work easily. There are also people who will not come here because of this very situation. Therefore, changing t…

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. With regard to a point made by the previous speaker, my understanding is that this is the third, if not fourth, debate on migration, specifically immigration and the pact, I have attended in the House in as many months. We had a three-hour debate in the committee last week and it is open to any Deputy at any time to raise the matter as a Topical Issue, in a Private Members' motion or at the Business Committee. The pact has been discussed at European level for eight year…

Setting places on fire is not raising an issue.

The Deputy will be aware that the provision of improved court facilities at Tralee is one of the Courts Service projects included in the national development plan, NDP. The existing courthouse on Ashe Street in Tralee comprises only two courtrooms and it lacks the facilities one would expect to find in a modern county town courthouse. I am informed the plan is for a new courthouse comprising four courtrooms and related facilities that are necessary to meet future requirements. As the Deputy knows, there is not suff…

The Deputy has raised this with me recently in relation to the An Post site. I have inquired and have been informed by the Courts Service that the search for a suitable site has been ongoing. It has been challenging. This was prior to the completion of the sale of the Island of Geese site, which was back in December last year. It had been ongoing for many years stretching back to the 2000s, and during that period a number of sites were considered for the purpose of a courthouse. The An Post site was among the sites…

The challenge here is that the search for a site has been going on since the early 2000s. The site referred to by the Deputy was not for sale and it is actually not up for sale now. I appreciate that it might come up for sale at some point in the future. It is not up for sale now and we do have a site that has actually been acquired. It is a portion of the site and the decision was taken by Kerry County Council. It was voted on by the members. What they do with the rest of the site is obviously a matter for the loc…

But it is not.

We have just had a good debate and a number of questions at the Joint Committee on Justice on this matter. I start by assuring the Deputy that I am keenly aware that the right to asylum is a fundamental right in the EU guaranteed by the treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and confirmed by the proposals under the pact on migration and asylum. The EU asylum and migration pact will ensure Europe acts as a collective in terms of how migration, and in particular asylum, is managed to ensure the system is firmer…