Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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37. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when he expects the introduction of the new subsidiary protection system; and if he has considered the introduction of legislation for a single procedure for the assessment of subsidiary protection. [5355/14]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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With regard to the introduction of a new subsidiary protection system, the Deputy may be aware that I made new Regulations last year governing the investigation and determination of applications for subsidiary protection in the State. The European Union (Subsidiary Protection) Regulations 2013, which came into effect on 14 November 2013, were made to address certain matters which arose from the judgment of the High Court in January 2013 in the MM case.

Under the new Regulations, responsibility for the processing of applications for subsidiary protection was transferred from my Department to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner with appeals to be dealt with by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. Both of these bodies are independent in the exercise of their statutory functions and they have substantial experience in the area of asylum investigations and appeals, respectively. As I have said previously, by its very nature, the processing of applications for international protection is a solemn and complex task which does not always lend itself to achieving speedy outcomes. However, now that processing has recommenced and once the new arrangements have bedded down, my aim is for subsidiary protection applications currently on hand to be processed to finality by the statutory bodies concerned in the shortest possible timeframe consistent with quality and fair assessment of all cases and of course, subject to the cooperation of applicants and no further legal impediments arising. In those circumstances I would anticipate very significant inroads to be made on the caseload by the end of 2014.

With regard to the introduction of a Single Procedure, work on the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill is ongoing at my Department. The Bill, which I propose to introduce this year, should substantially simplify and streamline the existing arrangements for asylum, subsidiary protection and leave to remain applications. It will do this by making provision for the establishment of a single procedure, so that applicants can be provided with a final decision on all aspects of their protection application in a more straight forward and timely fashion.