Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Reception and Integration Agency is responsible for the accommodation of asylum seekers in accordance with the Government policy of direct provision and dispersal. The information required by the Deputy regarding the cost of the asylum direct provision system in each of the past three years is: a total of €84.382 million in 2005, a total of €78.728 million in 2006 and a total of €83.262 million in 2007. A breakdown of this expenditure is set out in the following table.

The average number of people accommodated by the Reception and Integration Agency for the past three years is 6,784 in 2005, 5,036 in 2006 and 6,122 in 2007. The continued increase in the numbers availing of accommodation provided by the reception and integration agency is influenced by a number of factors, including delays associated with cases where judicial reviews and certain leave-to-remain applications are involved and other complex cases which of themselves take time to resolve, thus leading to a slowing-up of throughput within the direct provision system. Where judicial reviews are concerned, the time taken to discharge any proceedings is a matter for the courts.

The length of time taken to process asylum applications at the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner for prioritised cases is, on average, 17 to 20 working days from the date of application.

In respect of appeals to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, the average length of time to process and complete substantive appeals is 21 weeks and for prioritised cases the average is nine weeks. A large volume of the appeals outstanding for more than six months in the Refugee Appeals Tribunal is due to the delay in processing appeals pending the granting of access to tribunal decisions following the Supreme Court judgment on the matter in the Atanasov case. Following the judgment, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal set up a comprehensive data bank of previous decisions of the tribunal, suitably redacted, which is readily available for access by legal representatives of applicants.

Additional Information not given on the floor of the House.

This data bank, with other measures being applied by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal will be of considerable assistance in clearing the current backlog of cases.

The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008 comprehensively reforms and simplifies the current asylum system through the introduction of a single procedure for the investigation of all grounds, including protection ones, put forward by applicants for protection. The investigation of such an application shall also include whether, not being entitled to protection, an applicant should be otherwise permitted to remain in the State. This reform of the processing framework will lead to the removal of the existing multi-layered and sequential process which considers refugee matters first and then as part of a whole new process, issues associated with leave to remain in the State. It will allow an applicant to receive a final decision on their application in a more timely and efficient manner.

Spending in 2005 broken down as follows:

Spending in 2006 broken down as follows:

Spending in 2007 broken down as follows:

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