Members of business, church and ethnic groups will be appointed today to the board of a new agency catering for asylum-seekers and refugees.
The Reception and Integration Agency will take over the functions of two bodies in offering reception services for asylum-seekers and catering for the integration of people granted refugee status.
The interim advisory board will be chaired by Mr Raymond J. Rooney, a Galway-based auctioneer and insurance agent. He is a founding member of the West of Ireland Cardiology Foundation and an elected fellow of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute.
It is understood the other board members due to be appointed today by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, are:
Ms Aileen O'Donoghue, the assistant director of the Irish Business Employers Confederation;
Ms Christina Carney, assistant secretary general of IMPACT trade union;
Mr Joseph Moran, from Clann Housing Association, who worked for a number of years as a senior resettlement officer with the Refugee Agency;
Bishop William Murphy of Kerry;
Mr Brian Glanville, the director of psychology in the Northern Area Health Board, who has been involved with a psychological service set up for Bosnian refugees;
Mr Ramba Osango, a lecturer from the Democratic Republic of Congo who was granted humanitarian leave to remain in Ireland in 1996. A preacher, Mr Osango is a founder-member of the African Churches in Ireland and the African Refugee Network;
Mr Alexis T.P FitzGerald, a business consultant specialising in project management and strategic planning for projects and organisations in the hospitality and catering industry;
Ms Mary Murphy, national social policy officer with the Society of St Vincent De Paul.
The board will also include seven senior civil servants from Government Departments dealing with the reception of asylum-seekers and refugees.
The director of the agency is Mr Noel Waters, a former adviser to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
The establishment of the agency, due to start operating formally in April, is one of the key recommendations of an inter-departmental working group report on the integration of refugees in Ireland.
The agency will replace the Directorate for Asylum Support Services and also incorporate the Refugee Agency.
The directorate, set up more than a year ago, helps find accommodation for asylum-seekers arriving at a rate of up to 1,000 a month. There are now some 4,000 asylum-seekers accommodated in 70 centres under the mandatory dispersal programme.
The Refugee Agency has dealt with refugees who arrived in groups from countries, including Bosnia.