Written answers
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Asylum Support Services
8:00 pm
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 268: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average total cost to the State to support and keep an asylum seeker per annum [20081/08]
Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The costs to my Department in relation to delivering asylum services are included under the following subheads of the Justice vote: D1 (Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service); D2 (Refugee Legal Service); and D4 (Accommodation Asylum Seekers). The total costs under these subheads from 2002 to 2007 are set out in tabular format.
| Costs in €M to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in relation to the provision of asylum and immigration services (2002-2007). | ||||
| Year | Subhead D1 | Subhead D2 | Subhead D4 | Total Cost €M |
| 2002 | 36.5 | 9.0 | N/A* | 45.5 |
| 2003 | 34.8 | 9.2 | 76.6 | 120.6 |
| 2004 | 35.6 | 9.1 | 83.6 | 128.3 |
| 2005 | 43.2 | 9.2 | 84.4 | 136.8 |
| 2006 | 52.2 | 7.7 | 78.8 | 138.7 |
| 2007** | 65.1 | 8.6 | 83.3 | 157.0 |
| *The Department of the Environment and Local Government passed over responsibility for asylum seeker accommodation to the Reception and Integration Agency on 1 January 2003. In 2002, that Department reported a spend of €88.85M on asylum seeker accommodation. | ||||
| **The figures for 2007 are provisional and may be subject to change until publication of the 2007 appropriation accounts. |
Additional costs are borne by other Departments and Offices, such as the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Office of Public Works, the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Education and Science and the Chief State Solicitor's Office. The Deputy should note that the costs incurred under subhead D1 include the total cost of running the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) which includes the delivery of services across Asylum, Immigration, Naturalisation and Visa areas. The provisional expenditure under Subhead D1 for 2007 also includes expenditure on a number of major IT projects which will improve efficiency and customer service in asylum and immigration areas once completed. A significant proportion of the overall costs to my Department in delivering asylum services are in relation to the provision of asylum seeker accommodation, as can be seen from the table above.
As INIS costs are not exclusive to asylum services and as asylum costs are borne by other Government Departments and organisations it is not possible to provide an average cost to the State for an asylum seeker per annum. The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill published in January of this year, and which is currently at Committee stage of the Dáil, comprehensively reforms and simplifies the current refugee status determination process. It proposes, inter alia, the introduction of a single procedure for the investigation of all grounds for protection presented by applicants.
This change of the processing framework will remove the current multi-layered and sequential process and will thereby allow an applicant to get a final decision on their application in a more efficient manner. Together with other provisions of the Bill, it is anticipated that the time required to reach a final decision in a given case will be reduced, which can only be in the interests of the applicant and indeed the protection of the integrity of the refugee status determination process.
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