Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 354: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will review a decision to refuse refugee status to persons (details supplied). [28262/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The persons concerned are a husband and wife who lodged separate asylum applications in 2010 and 2009, respectively. Their asylum applications were refused following the consideration of their individual cases by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.

Arising from the refusal of their respective asylum applications, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), they were separately notified, she by letter dated 16th March, 2010 and he by letter dated 28th July, 2011, that the Minister proposed to make Deportation Orders in respect of them. They were each given the options, to be exercised within 15 working days, of leaving the State voluntarily, of consenting to the making of a Deportation Order or of making representations to the Minister setting out the reasons why a Deportation Order should not be made against them. In addition, they were notified of their respective entitlements to apply for Subsidiary Protection in accordance with the provisions of the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006.

The persons concerned submitted individual applications for Subsidiary Protection. When consideration of these applications has been completed, the persons concerned will be notified in writing of the outcomes. In the event that the applications for Subsidiary Protection are refused, the position in the State of the persons concerned will then be decided by reference to the provisions of Section 3 (6) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) and Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended) on the prohibition of refoulement. Once decisions have been made, these decisions and the consequences of the decisions will be conveyed in writing to the persons concerned.

In relation to the Deputy's request for a review of the decisions to refuse the asylum applications of the persons concerned, the position is that the asylum applications submitted were examined by the two statutory independent refugee status determination bodies, namely the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, both of whom concluded that the persons concerned did not meet the criteria for recognition as refugees. In assessing each individual asylum application or appeal, the bodies referred to must, in accordance with their statutory remit, have regard for the specific claims made by an applicant as measured against objective, reputable, up to date information relating to the applicant's country of origin and, where doubts exist, the benefit of the doubt is applied in favour of the applicant. I understand that copies of the determinations made by the two bodies were sent to the persons concerned, and to their legal representatives, so the persons concerned will be able to see from those documents the basis for the conclusions reached in their respective cases.

Overall, I am satisfied that the State has a very fair and comprehensive mechanism in place for the consideration of all asylum applications. I am also satisfied that the asylum applications made by the persons concerned were properly considered before decisions to refuse them were taken. As a result, I see no basis for any further review of the asylum claims made by the persons concerned.

I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.