Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There were two items that I wanted to address in that correspondence. One is the numbers being processed, which goes back to the point made earlier by Deputy Ó Cathasaigh about misinformation. The figures given for 2023 are that there were 13,272 applicants for international protection but only 8,938 were processed. Obviously, we would like to see all of those processed. However, if we look at the first-instance grant and refusal decisions, it is interesting that a total of 8,938 were processed but 5,171 of those were refused, which is completely at odds with what we read online. Those are the figures from the Department of Justice. The figure for refugee status grants was 2,471, so it is nearly two to one. In fairness, with regard to the processing of applications, issues around checking applicants and verifying the details given, the Department seems to be fairly thorough at the moment, although further improvements need to be made and I will not argue with that. Some of us have asked for more thorough checks to be carried out to make sure that those who are genuine are helped because it creates problems if we are not able to do that quickly enough. However, those figures stand out in that there are twice as many first-instance refusals as grants. It is an interesting figure, so I note that.

We asked a question on the median time. This comes from our meeting with the Department of Justice in February, where we asked about first-instance decisions. The time was 18 months but, in 2023, it had reduced to 13 months. Some of the replies we get in the Chamber would lead us to believe that the time for first-instance decisions is a lot shorter than that. We should ask the Department what the plans are to reduce that figure from a median of 13 months because it is still too long for first-instance decisions. I propose that we ask that this be addressed. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. 2525B is from the University of Limerick, dated 15 April 2024. This issue came up last week and the week before. The correspondence states that, following approval by the governing authority, the deputy president, Professor Shane Kilcommins, has been designated as the employee who will perform the functions of chief officer, including, and this is the key point, the function of Accounting Officer. It is proposed to note and publish this item. They are coming in front of us very soon and we will discuss this when we get to the work programme. Is everybody okay with that?