Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

In recent years, considerable work has been undertaken in the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, as well as within the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, to deal with applications for asylum and to speed up processing times. The work involved has resulted in a situation where processing has continued to move strongly in both agencies. By 31 March 2006, there were 2,609 cases on hands in both agencies compared to around 7,000 cases on hands at the end of January 2004. The number of applications over six months in the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal by 31 March 2006 stood at 484 compared to 6,500 at the end of September 2001. The backlog of applications has been eliminated in ORAC with only 63 cases on hand over six months at the end of March 2006 and 421 in the appeal tribunal, a significant number of which are at an advanced stage of processing. There is continued momentum in processing timescales for asylum applications, with new arrangements for speedier processing of prioritised asylum applications from nationals of Nigeria, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and South Africa, introduced from January 2005 with a 17 working-day processing time at first instance in ORAC and a 15 working-day processing time at appeals stage in the RAT. Currently, almost 40% of total applications fall into the prioritised category.

With effect from 1 November 2005, all applicants for asylum are notified of their interview date by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner at the time they make their applications. The interview appointment is normally within 20 working days of application. However, for those applicants within the prioritised category, interviews in ORAC are held within nine to 12 days. The typical processing time in the ORAC for non-prioritised cases is in the region of eight to nine weeks. The average length of time taken to process and complete substantive appeals in the RAT is approximately 14 weeks. Substantial progress also continues to be made in effecting deportation orders as well as transfer orders to other EU member states under the EU Dublin II regulation.

In 2002, we received 11,600 applications, of which 894 were granted status at first instance. Of the 4,323 applications we received last year, 455 or 10% were granted status at first instance. Some 1,099 were granted status upon appeal, 832 in 2003, 708 in 2004, 511 in 2005 and, thus far this year, with a reduced number of appeals, 47 have been granted. In 2002, 2,430 deportation orders were signed by the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, and by me.

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