Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 146: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications for judicial review taken against decisions of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal in each of the past five years; the number of such applications that were successful; the number that were unsuccessful; and the number of cases that were settled or withdrawn. [24106/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the table below.

Judicial Reviews taken against decisions of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (2005 to 2009)

* There is no direct correlation between the Judicial Reviews taken against the Tribunal in a particular year and the outcomes for that year.

In considering the number of applications taken to judicially review decisions of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT) in the past five years, account should be taken of the high number of decisions made by the RAT in the same period, i.e. 14,140 decisions issued. I would also add that the Tribunal has informed my Department, that in the majority of cases, the reasons for the Judicial Review relate to matters of a technical nature in relation to the processing of appeals rather than the substance of the Member's decision itself.

With a view to bringing about improvements in this regard, the Tribunal has also informed my Department that a strong focus on quality decision making continues to be a core part of the ongoing training provided to members of the Tribunal.