Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 9: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his plans to review the organisation or operation of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15660/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal is a statutory independent body established under the Refugee Act 1996 in order to deal with appeals arising from negative recommendations in respect of applications for refugee status issued by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, ORAC. The tribunal has been in operation since November 2000 and is comprised, at the present time, of a full-time chairperson and 33 part-time members.

The tribunal has undertaken a significant job of work since its establishment, taking some 23,107 decisions up to the end of 2005. It has also been tackling on an ongoing basis the number of appeals on hands and moving from a situation, for example, where on 31 January 2004 it had some 2,596 appeals to clear — some 990 of which were more than six months old — to a situation at the end of December 2005 where it had 1,267 appeals on hands, only 258 of which were more than six months old and a significant number of which are at an advanced stage of processing.

I would like to record my appreciation to the chairperson of the tribunal, its members and staff for their efforts to date in carrying out the important work of the tribunal in meeting the State's obligations under the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees.

As was pointed out in the public consultation document setting out outline policy proposals for an Immigration and Residence Bill issued by me in April 2005, the State is required to introduce a subsidiary protection regime under EU law later this year. Transposition of the relevant EU directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals and stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection will be catered for in the Bill, the scheme of which is at an advanced stage of preparation.

This provides an opportunity, of which I intend to avail, to re-examine, in the light of the experience of the last decade, how protection claims are dealt with under present law including at appeals stage. Any proposals which I have for change will be announced in the usual manner in due course.