Tá ceist agam maidir leis an mBille um Inimirce, Cónaí agus Cosaint, the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, which was introduced here at First Stage in 2010. It has been in committee since. Given that persons are stuck in these direct provision facilities, in some cases for 14 years, this delay is unacceptable.

Last month, the chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Ms Emily Logan, expressed concern at a committee meeting about the inordinate delay attached to the Bill, which has very real human consequences. I visited the direct provision facility at Mosney in County Louth where some people have been living for up to ten years. Some children born in the facility are still there eight or nine years later. Given that the former Minister, Deputy Shatter, said he would republish the Bill during his term of office, could the Taoiseach explain in the first instance the reason for the delay, and when the Bill will come back before the Dáil?

An immigration Bill is on the clár, as it were. So many amendments were tabled to the Bill that it was considered better to withdraw it and draft a new Bill, namely, the international protection Bill. I have a note on it in respect of the commitment to legislate to reduce the length of time for asylum seekers must spend time in the direct provision system, through the establishment of a single applications procedure to be introduced by way of a protection Bill. Work is under way on it, taking into account all of the amendments that were tabled on the immigration Bill previously.

We must also consider the specialist group chaired by Mr. Justice Bryan MacMahon, which is dealing with representatives from all of the organisations concerned with immigration and asylum seekers. It is considering what should apply in the Bill and in the direct provision facilities, which is a subject of interest and focus for the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald. I will provide an update to Deputy Adams on the work that is proceeding in terms of the drafting of the protection Bill. We must await the report of Mr. Justice MacMahon, taking into account the views of all the organisations on how the situation could be improved and expedited. The central issue is that it should not take ten years to decide whether an applicant is entitled to asylum.

Does the Taoiseach have a notion of when the Bill will come back to the House?

It will be next year.