Minister of State with responsibility for refugees has said that those in direct provision for five years or more will not automatically be granted leave to stay.

Former High Court judge Bryan McMahon has called for an amnesty on several occasions, after chairing a working group into the direct provision system.

Both men were speaking at the Inclusive Centenaries 1916 conference in NUIG yesterday.

According to the Irish Times, Minister of State David Stanton, said that applications would still have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

He told the conference that 140 of the recommendations in the McMahon report had been implemented, including better access to education and better accommodation.

He said the next step would be to speed up the decision-making process so asylum seekers would know within 8 months whether they had leave to stay.