Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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149. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of the 4,000 persons committed to under the Irish refugee protection programme that have arrived here to date; the number of such persons that have since successfully moved out of State accommodation; and the way in which the State plans to meet its commitments before the deadline expires. [19783/17]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) was established by Government Decision on 10 September 2015 as a direct response to the humanitarian crisis that developed in Southern Europe as a consequence of mass migration from areas of conflict in the Middle East and Africa. Under this programme, the Government has pledged to accept a total of 4,000 persons into the State. A breakdown of how this 4,000 will be taken in across the various mechanisms through which the programme is being delivered can be found in Table 1.

Table 1: Table of Total Numbers under Government Decision on the IRPP

*Of the total of 2,022 under Council Decision 2015/1601 910 have yet to be assigned to either Italy or Greece by the EU Commission.

Arrivals to date

As of the end April 2017, the numbers of persons that have arrived under both the programme refugee resettlement strand and the relocated asylum seeker strands of the programme are set out in Tables 2 and 3, respectively:

Table 2: Resettlement Programme Refugees

Table 3: Relocated Asylum Seekers

Further numbers will of course arrive under the relocation programme over the coming months. Full details on the two primary strands of the programme are set out below for the information of the Deputy.

Of the 1,191 people who have arrived thus far under the IRPP, a total of 536 persons are now living in the community in various locations nationwide. It is expected that in the region of another 100 people will be housed within the community by the end of June 2017. IRPP officials are working closely with local authorities across the State and the Irish Red Cross to secure appropriate accommodation for those currently in emergency accommodation and all future arrivals.

Resettlement strand of the programme

Taking account of the situation in the Middle East, and the plight of the refugees, the Tánaiste announced that Ireland would accept 520 persons for resettlement over an 18-month period to the end of 2017. This was almost double the figure proposed for Ireland by the European Commission and was delivered a year ahead of the Commission deadline.

In addition, the Government announced last year that it was extending the resettlement programme to take in a further 520 refugees from Lebanon in 2017, most of whom are of Syrian origin. 215 of these have already arrived following a selection mission last October and a further mission to Beirut in late March/early April this year selected sufficient numbers to ensure the total of 1,040 is reached by the end of the 2017.

Relocation strand of the programme

Despite initial delays outside of Ireland's control in respect of the operation of the 'hotspots' on the ground in Greece, Ireland has to-date taken in a total of 459 people from Greece under relocation. A monthly schedule has been agreed with the Greek authorities which will sustain the pace of intakes throughout 2017 at the levels required to allow Ireland to meets its initial commitments to Greece within the time frame envisaged by the Programme.

Ireland has agreed to take up to 20 unaccompanied minors (UAMs) under the IRPP. Fundamentally, Ireland's capacity to take UAMs is determined by Tusla, the child and family agency. 6 UAMs (by the Irish definition) have arrived in Ireland from Greece under the programme. However, relatively few UAMs appear to be available within the cohort eligible for relocation and efforts continue to seek further transfers within this cohort.  All UAMs that have arrived to-date are in the care of Tusla. 

As regards Italy, the relocation mechanism from Italy has yet to commence for many countries, including Ireland, due to issues with the Italian authorities surrounding the security assessment of migrants assigned to other Member States. Intensive efforts are ongoing to resolve this, both bilaterally with Italian counterparts at official, diplomatic and Ministerial level, and at EU level, including through the European Commission.

The total target for relocation EU-wide in the two Council Decisions for relocation also includes an unallocated portion which in the case of Ireland amounts to  910 persons. These numbers have not yet been allocated as between Greece and Italy.  It is understood that the European Commission are examining allocating this "unassigned" portion and if they do Ireland will immediately work towards relocating them. 

Calais Minors

In a further gesture of humanitarian assistance towards the most vulnerable caught up in the migration crisis and following a debate in the Dáil, the Government also committed to taking up to 200 unaccompanied minors (UAMs) from France who were previously resident in the migrant camp at Calais. 21 UAMs have thus far arrived in Ireland under this initiative and are in the care of Tusla.These initiatives therefore leave just a small residual balance to be allocated from the Government decision to take 4,000 persons.