Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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25. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the average length of time that applicants for asylum/refugees status have remained in this country awaiting a decision on their case; the extent to which persons in the country for five years or more may expect to have their cases dealt with expeditiously [13167/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Applications for refugee status rose by 53% in 2014 and in the first two months of this year were 129% ahead of the same period in 2014. This has resulted in the median processing times at first instance increasing from 12 weeks in January 2014 to 21 weeks in January 2015. The median processing time for appeals of refugee status decisions in 2014 was some 49 weeks for appeals involving an oral hearing and 39 weeks in the case of appeals decided on papers only.

Where a person is refused refugee status and has applied for subsidiary protection the investigation of this application follows. The Deputy should also be aware that the time taken to process a protection application to finality can be prolonged by the taking of judicial review proceedings against decisions made at various stages of the protection determination process.

I have previously acknowledged that the length of time that applicants spend in the protection process is a matter that needs to be addressed particularly in light of the sharp increase in asylum application volumes in 2014 and so far in 2015. The Deputy may be aware that an Independent Working Group was established in October 2014 to recommend to the Government what improvements should be made to the protection process, including direct provision and supports to asylum seekers. One of the tasks of the Working Group is to identify improvements to existing arrangements for the processing of protection applications taking account of the Government's intention to legislate for a single application procedure.

The Group began its work in November last under the Chairmanship of retired High Court Judge, Bryan McMahon and its membership is drawn from a range of interests in the international protection area including UNHCR, non-governmental organisations, protection applicants, academia, and relevant Government Departments and Offices. The Working Group is due to report to Government with its recommendations by May 2015.

I have also committed to introducing legislative change in the Protection area to provide for a single application procedure with a view to reducing the length of time applicants spend in the protection process. On 25 March 2015 I published the General Scheme of the International Protection Bill, which was approved by Government last week. This is the first step in delivering the Government's undertaking in the Statement of Government Priorities 2014 - 2016 to legislate to reduce the length of time protection applicants spend in the system. My objective is to reform the current multi-layered and sequential system which can result in applicants being accommodated in the State's system of direct provision for indeterminate periods of time. The single procedure will identify at a much earlier stage those who are in need of international protection and should be granted status and those who have no entitlement to stay in the State and who can safely return to their country of origin.

In accordance with the Government decision I have forwarded the General Scheme of the Bill to the Attorney General for the detailed drafting of the legislation which, subject to the approval of the Government at a future time, will be presented to the Oireachtas for enactment into law. My aim is for the legislation to be enacted by the end of this year.

Notwithstanding the deliberations of the Working Group on the Protection Process and the future publication of the International Protection Bill, a number of other initiatives have already been put in place to address the number of cases on hand in the protection system which are yielding significant results. Various strategies are being utilised to deal with cases on hand including the scheduling of interviews of applicants on Saturdays. The transfer of subsidiary protection application processing to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner in late 2013 has resulted in the scheduling of 1,500 interviews so far and the production of decisions in some 1,000 cases at first instance. In addition, a further 1,300 subsidiary protection applications have either been withdrawn or deemed withdrawn. The processing of these cases has been greatly aided by the establishment of a legal panel set up to assist the Commissioner with this work. Based on the success of the use of the panel it is now planned to expand it and extend its remit to include the processing of asylum applications.

To assist with processing at the appeals stage of the process I have recently appointed nine additional members to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. These members have been selected from those who were considered suitable for appointment following a competitive process involving the Public Appointments Service.

My Department is also actively considering what other measures can be taken to reduce the number of cases on hand at the leave to remain stage of the process in advance of the introduction of a single application procedure.