Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I attach a high level of priority to ensuring that asylum applications are dealt with fairly and as quickly as possible, so as to minimise the cost to the State. Processing times and scheduling arrangements are kept under ongoing review by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, ORAC, and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, RAT, with a view to limiting the amount of time applicants have to wait for a recommendation or decision. In 2008, some 4,581 applications were processed to completion by ORAC with 2,461 appeals concluded by RAT.

As indicated in previous replies on this matter, a number of steps have been taken in recent years to expedite the processing of asylum applications. These include the introduction of prioritised arrangements for the processing of applications from certain source countries; the scheduling by ORAC of interviews on the date of application; and maximising the use of the Dublin II regulation to determine the appropriate European state responsible for processing asylum applications made in Ireland. The effectiveness of these measures can be seen in the continuing improvements in processing times at first instance.

More recent developments include the introduction by RAT in 2008 of a new on-line system of access to previous tribunal decisions. The new system enables legal representatives of applicants to more readily access past tribunal decisions and thus speed up the scheduling of appeals hearings by RAT.

In addition, the recruitment of a panel of presenting officers by ORAC to supplement its own presenting team in servicing appeal hearings has enabled RAT to almost double the number of appeal hearings being scheduled. These changes will help to further improve appeal processing timetables.

All of this work is undertaken in the context of increasing levels of abuse of the asylum process and the growing complexity of cases from a mix of over 100 countries, such as Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As I have said previously, the vast majority of applicants do not possess any identity documentation on arrival in the State. This is despite the fact that many indicate they have travelled by air, which would have required identity documentation at the point of departure. This is but one of the many abuses evident in our asylum process today.

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