Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 25: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of people who sought asylum prior to 1 January 2001 who are still awaiting a decision on their asylum application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9793/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am advised by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner that there are no applications awaiting a first instance determination with an application date prior to 1 January 2001. While the Refugee Appeals Tribunal has advised that there are no appeals with it with an appeal date prior to 1 January 2001, there are 11 appeals in the RAT with an application date prior to 1 January 2001. In addition, there are two cases in the ministerial decisions unit regarding applications prior to 1 January 2001 awaiting issue of a decision letter. For a variety of reasons, there will always be some applications and appeals which take significantly longer than the average to complete which can arise for reasons such as judicial review proceedings.

I wish to acknowledge the very significant progress made by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, and their respective staff, in addressing both the volume of cases on hands in both ORAC and RAT as well as the timescales involved in bringing a case to its conclusion. At the end of February 2006 there were 2,409 cases on hand at ORAC and RAT as compared to 6,930 cases in January 2004 and 3,629 in January 2005. The number of cases in each of the asylum agencies over six months was 470 at the end of February 2006 compared to some 1,057 in January 2005, 2,910 cases in January 2004 and some 6,500 in September 2001.

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 days processing time at first instance in ORAC and 15 working days at appeals stage in 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 application. The interview appointment is normally within 20 working days of application. However, for those applicants within the prioritised category, interviews in ORAC are held, more speedily, within nine to 12 days.