Ms Oonagh Buckley:

I thank the Chair and the committee for inviting the Department to update it on the measures we are taking to implement the Government’s White Paper and, in particular, to speed up the processing of international protection applications.

Let me start by saying that both the Minister and the Department are fully committed to our objective of having decisions made on international protection applications as soon as possible. This ensures that those who are found to be in need of our protection can receive it quickly and begin rebuilding their lives here with a sense of safety and security. We are also fully committed to implementing the key recommendations in the expert advisory group report to reduce average processing times of both first instance decisions and appeals to six months, respectively, as outlined in the White Paper to end direct provision and establish a new international protection support service.

The White Paper proposes that the new system should be phased in and operational by 2024 and that the intervening period should provide an opportunity to progress improvements in the overall processing times for international protection. That work is well under way and I would like to give the committee a brief overview today of how we intend to reach that target.

In the first instance, the Department is prioritising the processing of all cases using improved processes and involving ICT investment in the system. A number of initiatives have already been introduced, including the relocation of the ministerial decisions unit to the International Protection Office, IPO, premises to improve work processes, the designation of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, IPAT, as a body authorised to hold remote hearings and the holding of virtual interviews with some applicants living outside of Dublin. An end-to-end review of processes in both the IPAT and the IPO, as recommended by the expert advisory group, has been completed by a multidisciplinary team from within the Department. The review included engagement with past and present applicants and with staff working in the IPO and in the tribunal.

The Minister published the results of the review last month and its findings and recommendations for reform are now helping us to improve efficiencies within those processes and support our goal of reducing average processing times for international protection. The development of paperless processes will be an important part of this reform as well.

It is also important to acknowledge that the dedication and professionalism of staff in the IPO and in the tribunal, who participated wholeheartedly with the review and very much on board for these changes, is specifically called out in the report. In case members have not seen it, there was some very interesting work done with applicants and there are some very telling conclusions from that report, which are very much guiding how we are approaching the process of reform within the IPO and the IPAT.

I am joined today by the chief international protection officer, Mr. David Delaney, who was recently appointed to this role but is going at it with great enthusiasm. The IPO is examining and implementing measures with a view to speeding up average processing times and reducing the overall number of applicants in the protection process. These measures include training more staff to conduct interviews and complete reports, while also streamlining processes to assist in expediting applications in the medium to long term.

The Department works closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, of Ireland, and there is an ongoing quality assessment process in place with that organisation. This provides valuable feedback to staff on the quality of decision-making and ensures that any lessons learned are reflected in amended procedures, if required. The approach to the prioritisation of cases is also agreed with UNHCR and was most recently updated in June. A shorter and more user-friendly questionnaire for applicants was also introduced in June and has recently been made available online for the first time.

Following the successful piloting of a virtual chatbot for citizenship applications on our new Irish immigration website, plans are also under way to expand this service to international protection applicants. I know that when the committee met with our colleagues from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth recently, it was interested in how the programme boards were operating. I chair the programme board in our Department, which meets every month and has done so since the advisory group’s report was published in September 2020. We effectively started straight away, in terms of implementation. A senior representative from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth participates on that board, which oversees the work of an implementation working group established within the Department to take forward those recommendations under our remit. My colleague, Mr. Delaney, is our Department’s representative on the programme board more recently established by the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman’s Department in relation to accommodation and other elements related to direct provision. Therefore, there is a strong overlap and strong co-ordination between the two programme boards.

It must be acknowledged that efforts to improve processing times have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. A decision was also made to stop issuing negative decisions by the ministerial decisions unit during this time. As a result, the output of decisions was reduced considerably in the last year and a half. Attendance in the office has been strictly limited in line with public health guidance and substantive protection interviews were suspended for the periods under level 5 restrictions.

Despite this, the International Protection Office remained open throughout this period to offer applicants a service in line with our international obligations to allow those who wish to claim international protection the opportunity to do so. The provision of the facility to allow people to claim international protection is considered an essential service at all times, including during the Covid-19 crisis. IPO staff have worked both on-site and remotely throughout the pandemic to ensure the protection process continues to operate. We are very grateful to them for that and it has allowed us to continue to provide this very critical service at this time.

Applications for protection have continued to be made at all times in the pandemic, albeit in lower numbers. With the opening up of international travel again, those numbers are starting to rise quite steeply. This makes the implementation of the recommendations of the Catherine Day report all the more important.

The measures we are taking and will take will have a demonstrably positive impact on waiting times for applications, both in the short to medium term and over the longer term as we move towards the 2024 timeframe. Early results from this work can already be seen. However, if this does not allow us to fully realise our ambitions, by next October at the latest, the Department will commence a review of progress made in reducing and improving processing times. Based on the outcome of that review, we will decide by the end of 2022 whether additional measures are required to ensure the new system can come into operation without the overhang of any significant number of legacy cases.

I thank the committee for its attention. My colleague and I will be happy to answer any questions members may have.