Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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548. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Syrian refugees resettled here in 2016 and to date in 2017; the anticipated number to be settled during the last quarter of 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38088/17]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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643. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of refugees to date in 2017 that have arrived here under the relocation and resettlement programmes, in tabular form; if the target of accepting 4,000 refugees by the end of 2017 will be reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38324/17]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 548 and 643 together.

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; approximately 2,622 through the EU relocation mechanism established by two EU Council Decisions in 2015 to assist Italy and Greece, 1,040 under the UNHCR-led refugee resettlement programme currently focussed on resettling refugees from Lebanon (519 by the end of 2016 and the remainder in 2017) and the balance through a variety of mechanisms. The Deputy should also be aware the actual numbers eligible for relocation from Italy and Greece are much lower than those originally envisaged under the two Council Decisions of September 2015 (160,000 people). In its most recent publication on Relocation and Resettlement, published on 7 September, the European Commission estimates some 26,975 people eligible and registered for relocation in Italy and Greece have been relocated to other Member States to date, with approximately 4,700 people registered and still to be relocated from Greece.

The relevant instruments - the two Council relocation Decisions and the three separate Government decisions on programme refugees - envisaged an end-2017 timeframe for the bulk of the cohort. However, it is important to note that the Government commitment to accept 4,000 people was not time limited.

Ireland will deliver its full commitment on programme refugees. Primarily because the numbers anticipated in the Council Decisions, in terms of eligible nationalities, do not exist on the ground in either Greece or Italy as outlined above, Ireland, in common with the vast majority of other Member States, will not be in a position to relocate the anticipated numbers of asylum seekers. Despite the significant shortfall in persons available for relocation, Ireland will have fulfilled two out of its three commitments by year end. We will have doubled our resettlement commitment and fully met our commitments to Greece. Lack of co-operation in relation to security assessments by the Italian authorities has prevented any progress being made in relation to the small numbers registered in Italy.

Table 1 sets out the position regarding the assignment of the 4,000.

Table 1: Table of Total Numbers under Government Decision

In summary, as of 7 September 2017, the current 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 Table 2 and Table 3 respectively:

Table 2: Resettled Programme Refugees

As regards the programme refugee strand of the IRPP, Ireland had taken in 519 of the original commitment of 520 by the end of 2016, a year ahead of schedule. Last year the Government doubled its commitment under resettlement to 1,040 and the number of persons who have arrived from Lebanon under refugee resettlement now stands at 785. A balance of about 270 refugees in Lebanon have been selected, assessed under the programme refugee resettlement strand and will arrive later this year, or early next year, contingent on a range of factors including processing capacity by overseas partners and available space in Emergency Reception and Orientation Centres (EROCs) in Ireland.

Table 3: Relocated Asylum Seekers

In terms of the relocation aspect of the IRPP, allocations under the relevant EU Council Decisions are composed of three elements:

- an intake from Greece of 1,089 asylum seekers

- an intake from Italy of 623 asylum seekers and

- an allocation of 910 asylum seekers which has not been assigned by the European Commission to either Italy or Greece.

Ireland will meet in full its commitment to Greece. 524 of the allocation of 1,089 are already in the State and a further 489 have been assessed and are awaiting transportation. Sufficient missions to fill any quota remaining under this strand of the Programme will be scheduled with the Greek authorities. However, Italy, unlike Greece, will not permit security assessments to be undertaken by other States on its territory. Accordingly, Ireland has been unable to undertake security assessments in Italy of the cohort eligible for relocation to Ireland. It has therefore not been possible for Ireland to take asylum seekers from Italy. However, efforts remain ongoing to try to resolve this impasse.

In terms of the unallocated portion contained in the two EU Council Decisions referred to above, which in the case of Ireland amounts to approximately 910 persons, Ireland cannot access this component until a proposal is made by the Commission to allocate these numbers as between Greece and Italy in line with the Council Decision. Given that the numbers anticipated by the two Council Decisions (160,000) do not actually exist on the ground in either Italy or Greece, in terms of eligible nationalities (in Greece this is overwhelmingly Syrian and in Italy, Eritrean), it is highly unlikely that this element of the Council Decision can be implemented by any Member State.

Ireland is doing everything it can to give effect to the EU relocation Decisions but as can be seen from the above information these Decisions are unlikely to yield the anticipated numbers for reasons entirely outside of Ireland’s control. In the areas where Ireland has been able to implement its resettlement programme - Lebanon, in the case of programme refugees; and Greece, in the case of relocated asylum seekers - Ireland has been able to meet and surpass its full obligations.

I can inform the Deputy that if, despite all Ireland's efforts, the relocation mechanism does not permit Ireland to take in the number of asylum seekers foreseen under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme, then the Government commitment to take in 4,000 people remains and Ireland will take in these numbers through other mechanisms. Officials are currently undertaking a full review of the IRPP with a view to establishing how best Ireland’s remaining obligations might be met and through what channels. When this review is complete appropriate decisions can then be taken. Decisions taken at EU level with regard to the ongoing migration crisis will of course impact on any such deliberations.