I join with others in congratulating the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on her wonderful news this morning.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to ending direct provision. I am delighted that it was announced just a few weeks ago that this will happen by 2024. It cannot happen soon enough. I grew up in Meelick, County Clare, which is the location of one of Ireland's oldest direct provision centres and I have got to know and have befriended many families there over the years. This system cannot be wound down soon enough. Eyes in the community are now turning to what will happen to that site afterwards. It has been some form of direct provision centre or refugee facility right back to the 1950s and 1960s. There are a number of local sports clubs such as Meelick GAA Club, Parkville Football Club, Ballynanty Rovers and Thomond Rugby Football Club. The site is right on the boundary between the north of Limerick city and the south Clare area. It is a colossal land bank located near Limerick Institute of Technology and the new northern distributor road. I hope Government has a vision for this site which will give a new purpose that many people across different age groups can enjoy for many years to come.

I am not sure if there are any specific plans for the Meelick site but I will let the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, know that the Deputy has raised the matter and has some suggestions as to how it could be put into use for the benefit of the community. I am sure he will want to consider them. It is the Government's policy to phase out direct provision and it has committed to doing so but we are realistic that it will take quite some time. We have a housing shortage in this country and there is a real difficulty with capacity in the construction sector which is an issue in building not only the houses we need, but also the public infrastructure we need. There are real limitations in that regard. There is going to be a difficulty.