Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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211. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applicants for international protection that have made an application for international Protection and have not yet been issued with a decision. [20013/24]

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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212. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applicants for international protection that have lodged an appeal against their decision from the IPO and have not yet been issued with a decision. [20014/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 211 and 212 together.

I propose to take PQs 211 and 212 together.

I can assure the Deputy that I am fully committed to ensuring that Ireland’s International Protection system is robust and rules based, and that our borders are protected.

I have significantly increased investment into the international protection system, which has allowed for a significant increase in processing capacity and the introduction of accelerated processing.

Last July, I published a report on the international protection modernisation programme for 2023 and 2024. This programme involved unparalleled investment in staff, panel members, reengineered processes, and technology. We have implemented measures to improve efficiencies and throughput as well as enhancing the application, interview and decision-making process for applicants. This has already demonstrated results with the IPO confident of delivering over 14,000 decisions this year.

One of the priority areas of focus has been to recruit both civil servants and panel members, to increase case processing. The International Protection Office now has over 400 staff, an increase of 95% over 2022. The IPO made 2,482 first instance determinations in 2021, 4323 in 2022, 9,000 in 2023 and are confident of delivering over 14,000 decisions this year.

These reforms and increased staff numbers are having a significant impact with the median processing time for all first-instance decisions reducing from 18 months in 2022 down to 13 months in 2023. The median processing time for appeals was 5.5 months in 2023 down from 13.5 months at the start of 2022.

Reforms to the international protection process will continue in 2024. Approximately €34m additional funding was allocated in Budget 2024 to the International Protection Office (IPO) and the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) to continue to scale up processing.

Since I introduced accelerated processing in November 2022, applications from eight designated safe countries have dropped by 50%. I added two additional countries to the safe country list earlier this year and eight more are under review.

Last week, I extended fast processing to whatever country has the highest number of applicants. This will be reviewed on a quarterly basis.

These measures, and all other aspects of the international protection modernisation programme will continue to be kept under review and improved on a continuous ongoing basis.

As of 30^th April 2024 there were 21,577 applicants awaiting a first instance decision at the IPO. Of these, 98% (21080) have been in the system for less than 2 years and almost 70% are less than 1 year.

As of close of business 26th April 2024 the International Protection Appeals Tribunal had 5087 appeals on hand.