Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The President of the High Court has allocated two additional judges since the start of 2009 to the asylum list, so there are four judges now dealing with these cases. I welcome the Deputy's complimentary words regarding ORAC and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.

Some 90% of asylum applications are ultimately seen to be unfounded and a third of those people claiming asylum reveal an immigration history in the UK. There are some very dramatic figures. The total number since 1992 which have claimed asylum is over 81,000, with a peak figure of 11,600 in 2002. That number is now much lower and in 2008 it was 3,800. To date in 2009, there have been 794 applications. We are catching up on the backlog. The average monthly application figure to the end of 2003 was between 830 and 840 and more recently, in January, it was 254. There has been a decrease in the number of applications, which suggests that many asylum seekers were coming for economic rather than asylum reasons.

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