Ms Emer Mullins:

I am happy to give a brief on the modernisation work now if that helps. I can take questions later. The modernisation programme started with the Catherine Day report. It asked that an end review of international protection and the International Protection Appeals Tribunal processes be carried out and for consideration of processes that could be facilitated or enabled by information technology, IT. The Department of Justice commissioned an end review and the Catherine Day programme board approved its scope. The board had responsibility for governance of the programme. A multidisciplinary project review team set up in November 2020 looked at the entire process, from application to the appeals process in IPAT. The review identified a set of key findings and points of constraint in the system. It did that by listening to staff, service users, stakeholders and partners. It also benchmarked Ireland against a number of other countries in terms of processing international protection applications. The group reviewed accelerated procedures in asylum, the digitisation of certain international protection processes, training procedures, staff profiles and the overall processing times. That was just to get a sense of where Ireland sat. It looked internally at people, staffing levels, processes and the organisation and structure of the International Protection Office. It looked in particular at information technology before making a series of conclusions and recommendations. The report has been published and is available.

To inform the review, it is important to say that an independent external company was hired to survey international protection applicants and appellants, so that their view was to the fore in teasing out the findings. The team based its findings on those customer insights, sketching out four different customer personas that allowed us to typify some of the most common types of applicants. It also looked at their journey through the international protection application system to see where there were pain points and where they felt we could improve things. Key themes were identified for improvements. That included the development of clear business intelligence and metrics, improved processes in a number of areas and better resourcing of staff and panel members who, as Mr. O'Sullivan mentioned, are contracted to work with us. The key finding was for better use of ICT to move away from paper-based files. Key criticisms included the length of time it took to process cases, the lack of available interview slots, lengthy and unwieldy questionnaires, delays in translation of files and shortage of staff and panel members. All of those themes were picked up and brought forward into the modernisation programme. We are very conscious that from a customer's perspective, their biggest complaint was the length of time in the system and the length of time to be processed.

The recommendations have been brought forward into our modernisation plan for the next couple of years. Some process improvements such as the accelerated procedure have been in place since November 2022. The budget of almost €18 million has been costed against our efforts in 2023. In that plan, staff have clear deliverables and quotas. Timelines for cases are now actively managed. In this plan, we have committed to reaching 1,000 first instance decisions per month by quarter 1 of 2024, scaling up continually throughout this year, which we are already doing. More than €10 million of the budget will be allocated to the recruitment of new staff and panel members.

As I mentioned, the key finding was digitisation and next month we will introduce a new digital file storage system, which will make all new applications available digitally to staff and IPAT through an interface. That will remove the need for paper files for new applications. We are simultaneously developing a digital custom application system where applicants will be assisted, when attending the IPO, to create their own digital account. They will then use a portal along the lines of mygov.ieto access their own documents and files and to be able to engage with stakeholders, legal representatives and so on at any point. Ideally, they will be given an interview date when they come in to set up that account and apply for protection once the application is accepted. This will also have an IPAT interface to streamline the process of file transfer in the moved paper. We are also looking at robotic process automation where that is suitable in the business.

In parallel with an immigration service delivery-wide modernisation programme, we are improving customer service by bringing in a cloud-based, artificial intelligence-based customer contact centre. We are currently dealing with up to 150 telephone calls and 1,500 emails per week, so that will help us better engage with our customers. We recognise that not all of our customers are digitally literate and that some would prefer to engage with paper. We are not saying we will be 100% digital but digital first will be our approach. We will always engage with those who wish to deal with us on paper.

On staffing and panel members, Mr. O'Sullivan mentioned those numbers are going up and we hope to have 430 staff in the business by the end of this year. We have over 160 panel members. To ensure we have capacity to accommodate out growing teams we have secured extra space in St. John's House in Tallaght, which went operational for interviews in April. We have also secured space next door to Timberlay House in Mount Street at 85 to 93 Mount Street. We are moving teams in there. In parallel, we have set up an in-house modernisation team to drive all of this work. We are also looking to potential legislative amendments or improvements to facilitate our work where that is necessary. A robust programme of work under way.