Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his Department's decision to opt out of Council Directive 2003/9/EC which sets down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers ensuring the most basic of human rights are met including minimum standards of accommodation, food and clothing, family unity, medical and psychological care, and access to education and language courses for children; and if not, his reasons for not opting into the Receptions Directive. [15729/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Following the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty the legal basis for Council Directive 2003/9/EC laying down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers is Article 78(2)(f) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Accordingly, the provisions of the EU Treaty Protocol on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice applies. The Protocol provides that Ireland may opt-in to a measure to which the Protocol applies. Ireland did not participate in the adoption and application of the 2003 Directive and there are currently no plans to exercise an opt-in in relation to it.

The principal reason for Ireland's position is the provisions of Article 11 of the 2003 Directive which deals with access to the labour market for asylum seekers. Article 11 provides that if a decision at first instance has not been taken within one year of the presentation of an application for asylum, and this delay cannot be attributed to the applicant, Member States shall decide the conditions for granting access to the labour market for the applicant.

This is contrary to the existing statutory position in Ireland which provides that an asylum seeker shall not seek or enter employment. This prohibition in Irish law is maintained in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, which I intend to republish.

Extending the right to work to asylum seekers would almost certainly have a profoundly negative impact on application numbers, as was experienced in the aftermath of the July 1999 decision to do so. The immediate effect of that measure was a threefold increase in the average number of applications per month leading to a figure of 1,217 applications in December 1999 compared with an average of 364 per month for the period January to July 1999.

Any change in public policy in this area would have to have regard to the very large numbers of people unemployed in this country.