Mr. Michael Kirrane:

There are approximately 4,500. For this year to date, the number of asylum claims is around 2,600. There are many people in the system who are relatively new to it. There is recognition from the working group on direct provision that the system is too slow and that the length of time people spend in it is the primary issue. The Government recently allocated additional resources to speed up the processing of those cases and we intend to move quickly on that. In addition, the international protection Bill will be published in a matter of weeks. This will introduce a single procedure which brings together into a single process the various stages of the process that are currently done in a linear fashion. The intention is that this will speed up the process. All aspects of somebody's protection application and their humanitarian leave to remain will be treated at the outset in one process, rather than having a linear process where there will inevitably be delay because one process must conclude before the next begins. The intention is to increase the rate of processing significantly through both of those measures.