Mr. David Delaney:

Ms Buckley covered everything very well. Just to give a bit of context, in 2018 the median processing time was hitting about 19 months. In 2019, that came down to about 17 months. In quarter 1 of 2020, we were hitting 14 months. There was real progress over those two and a half years, and it has been sort of a steady creep since then due to Covid and the restrictions and the ability to get applications processed effectively. The current median processing time of 23 months was actually at 26 months earlier in 2021, so we have already made some progress there. That is underpinned by going through some older cases due to Covid and restrictions in the office. This has involved a partial clear-out of older cases as well, which is giving a slightly misleading negative impression of the median processing times at the moment. However, we are starting to see a turn of the corner.

Another variable is that at the end of 2019, there were about 6,000 cases on hand in the International Protection Office. That figure reduced to close to 5,000 during the pandemic. An awful lot of work was done in the office to reduce the numbers on hand, notwithstanding restrictions and complexities that existed at the time. We have seen progress in that area. It would not be unusual to have a reduction in backlogs and also have an increase in the median processing time. As I said, the reason for that is many older cases were dealt with during the pandemic. We have had success in reducing the backlog by almost 1,000 cases over the past 12 to 18 months. That has been a success, notwithstanding the pressures. Other than that, Ms Buckley covered all the questions.