More than 800 asylum seekers have been in direct provision centres for four years or more.

They have remained at the centres while they are waiting for their applications for refugee status are determined.

There have been 528 applicants in centres for between four years and five years; 118 between five years and six years; and 71 applicants for between six years and seven years.

Another 116 applicants have lived in centres for seven years or more.

One family from Ghana - a mother and three children who are based at the centre in Ballyhaunis in County Mayo - has been in the system for over eight years.

Agyueiwaa Owusu told Newstalk's Barry Whyte that her application for asylum has been left in the hands of the High Court for the last four years having been rejected four times.

On the impact of direct provision on her children, she explained: "It's not easy for them - even [in] school [it] is affecting them... they don't concentrate very well.

"My children... the last born came here when he was two-three years [old] - now he's 11 years.

"He's spent all of his life in direct provision here... he doesn't know anything about Africa. If you ask him where you come from, he says 'I'm from Mayo'".

Her son, 16-year-old Prince, added: "I've been in Ballyhaunis for eight years - I feel like an Irish citizen.

"The community is good - everybody treats us as their family, treat us the same. School's been good as well... I've made a lot of friends since primary school."