I too extend best wishes to the new Garda Commissioner. She will have many challenges. I encourage the Government to bring forward legislation on the independent policing authority with all speed.

I want to discuss the landlord and tenant Bill and the Immigration Residence and Protection Bill 2013. Tá an iomarca daoine ar na sráideanna, páistí san áireamh. Is mór an náire é don Stát agus don Rialtas. Ba chóir go mbeadh sábháilteacht agus cinnteacht ag duine sa teach ina bhfuil sé nó sí ina chónaí nó ina cónaí. Táim ag lorg eolais faoin mBille maidir le landlord and tenant issues.

It is not hyperbole to say and the Taoiseach has acknowledged that we have a housing crisis. Up to 200 people are sleeping rough on our streets. It is very wintry weather. There are people moving from hostel to hostel night after night, families split up and tens of thousands of families in below standard homes. When will the landlord and tenant Bill be published?

I thank the Taoiseach for clarifying yesterday the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill. He said that it is not proceeding at present but is being redrafted because there were many amendments to it. The Taoiseach acknowledged that the time spent by some asylum seekers in direct provision is not acceptable.

In October, the Minister for Justice and Equality kindly wrote to me to say she hoped that legislation on the length of time asylum seekers spend in direct provision would be introduced this year. Could the Taoiseach update me on this aspect of the matter? I note that the Taoiseach has written to President Obama on his proposals to regularise the status of thousands of undocumented Irish in the US. While I welcome that, I would like to point out that there are many illegal immigrants in this country. Like their counterparts in the US, they simply want to pay their taxes and live normal lives. When will the legislation promised by the Minister for Justice and Equality to deal with this matter be published?

The landlord and tenant Bill is due in the middle of next year. The immigration Bill that was moving through the legislative process, and to which many amendments were proposed, will not proceed any further. It will be replaced by the international protection Bill, the principal purpose of which will be to reform the international protection, or asylum, system here in Ireland through the introduction of a single application procedure whereby all elements of a person's application to be permitted to remain in this country will be dealt with in one process. The Bill will comply with the UN refugee convention and the related EU directives. The Deputy will be aware that international protection can be offered to a person who is eligible for refugee protection on the basis of a well-founded fear of persecution in his or her country of origin, or to a person who is eligible for subsidiary protection on the basis of a real risk of suffering serious harm if he or she were to be returned to his or her country of origin. This is a complex issue, as Deputy Adams is well aware. The asylum process in many countries fails because there is no definite period in which a person's application for asylum in a specific country is dealt with one way or another. In many cases, an asylum seeker who went to a country for a period of time is still there 20 or 25 years later without a determination having been made. I would say it will probably be the middle of next year before the international protection Bill is published. It will deal with the principal issues by providing for a single application procedure and complying with the UN refugee convention and the EU directives. It is hoped that it will bring a sense of clarity and certainty to the process. I am conscious of the case that was decided in the High Court by Mr. Justice Mac Eochaidh, whose complex and lengthy judgment needs to be studied carefully.