Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 61: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the plans he has to allow for publication of statistics on the decisions of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal; if he will create an independent selection and interview process for members of the Tribunal, both of which would bring the Tribunal in line with best international practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22207/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT) was 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 32 part time Members.

The RAT is a statutory body, independent in the performance of its functions under the provisions of sections 15 and 16 of the Refugee Act, 1996 (as amended) and the publication of statistics regarding decisions of the Tribunal is a matter for the Chairperson. 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 over six months old) to a situation at the end of April 2006 where it had 1,672 appeals on hands, only 469 of which were over six months old and a significant number of which are at an advanced stage of processing.

I would like to place on the 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.

In April 2005, I published a public Consultation Document setting out outline policy proposals for an Immigration and Residence Bill. This document noted that the State is required to introduce a subsidiary protection regime under EU law later this year. 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. I will be bringing proposals to Government in this regard in the coming weeks.