Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Committee on Public Petitions

Direct Provision Policy and Related Matters: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. David Delaney:

It is an ongoing matter. In the first instance we try to deal with claims in normal date order and then there are common sense prioritisations that rarely change, which would be vulnerable individuals, elderly individuals and unaccompanied minors. That standard remains normal. Then there would be a categorisation of about seven countries. We are talking about the likes of Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and that category of countries. That will change a little bit on an ongoing basis. In some countries the situation on the ground will have improved to a certain extent such that one country will come off that list and another country will go onto it. There are other small prioritisations in the mix depending on whether someone raises personal medical concerns that may give rise to a need to have the case heard a little bit quicker; we always give priority to matters like that. There are the strategic prioritisations that I have just outlined and then there are humanitarian situations that may arise at a given point in time. That gives a high level overview of how that operates in a practical sense.