Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons living in direct provision; if he will provide the details in tabular form by year they entered direct provision; and his plans if any to end housing of asylum seekers in direct provision hostels. [6727/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), a functional unit of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department, is responsible for the accommodation of persons while their applications for international protection are being processed. As of 11 February 2013, there are 4,735 residents in 35 accommodation centres contracted to RIA throughout the State.

The following profile shows the duration of stay of residents currently in direct provision accommodation centres.

(*This profile is based on residents' most recent entry to the direct provision system. It does not include past time spent by residents who left the system for a period and subsequently sought and were granted re-access to the system.)

I acknowledge that the length of time spent in the direct provision system is an issue to be addressed. On the matter of application processing times and consequent length of time spent in the direct provision system, some cases can take significantly longer to complete owing to, for example, delays arising from medical issues or because of judicial review proceedings. All asylum applications and appeals are processed in accordance with the Refugee Act 1996 and high quality and fair decision-making in all cases continues to be a key priority at all stages of the asylum process.

For the sake of completeness, it is necessary to point out that persons who are refused a declaration under section 17 of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended, enter what is commonly referred to as the “leave to remain” process which generally has two elements to it: an application for subsidiary protection and further consideration to be given under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999, as amended. This is separate from the asylum or refugee status determination process. The processing of cases at this point is also complex and extremely resource intensive and there are no quick or easy decisions to make. Given the life changing consequences for the persons involved, these are decisions which must be taken with the most scrupulous care and attention.

I have taken steps to speed up the processing of applications, primarily by redeploying staff from the refugee determination bodies. The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, 2010 which I intend to republish provides for the introduction of a single procedure to determine applications for protection and other reasons to remain in the State. This should substantially simplify and streamline the existing arrangements. This reorganisation of the protection application processing framework will remove the current multi-layered processes and provide applicants with a final decision on their applications in a more straightforward and timely fashion.

Further, I recently approved an initiative to put in place a panel with legal expertise who will assist INIS in processing a cohort of repatriation cases, thus speeding up the overall process and reducing the time spent by persons in the direct provision system. I would expect to see significant dividends, in terms of cases finalised, from this initiative in the coming months.

As to the system of direct provision itself, I have explained in detail in response to previous Dáil Questions the reasons why it was introduced in 1999 in response to a situation where the structures then in place were entirely unsuited to the situation then pertaining and was necessary to prevent widespread homelessness among asylum seekers.The system remains a necessary feature of the State's asylum and immigration system and, as explained above, my efforts are concentrated on reducing the length of time persons stay in centres.

There are no cheaper alternatives to the direct provision system. In fact, if we were operating a system which facilitated asylum seekers in living independent lives in individual housing with social welfare support and payments, the cost to the exchequer would be double what is currently paid under the direct provision system. This was a key finding in the recent Value for Money Report on the direct provision system which was published in 2010 and is on the RIA website - www.ria.gov.ie.