Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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821. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the legislative reforms required in order to decrease case processing times within the international protection system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17097/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to implementing the key recommendations in the Expert Advisory Group Report to reduce processing times of both first instance decisions and appeals to 6 months respectively, as outlined in the White Paper to End Direct Provision and Establish a New International Protection Support Service, which was recently published by my colleague, Minister O'Gorman.

I have established a Programme Board in my Department to oversee the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group and the White Paper. This is supported by an Implementation Working Group comprising senior officials from the relevant areas of my department to support their implementation and to report to the Board on progress at regular intervals. The Programme Board will report directly to the Cabinet Committee on Social Affairs and Equality on progress in this regard, while my Department will also be represented on a Programme Board to be established and chaired by Minister O'Gorman, which will set performance indicators for the new model and monitor progress against those indicators.

The White Paper proposes that the new system should be phased in and operational by 2023 and that the intervening period should provide an opportunity to progress improvements in the overall processing times for international protection.

Work is underway in my Department towards Identifying mechanisms which will assist with working towards improved processing times. Additional ICT resources have been secured for 2021, and detailed work including an end-to-end review of processes to guide enhanced processing times is underway. When this first phase of work has been carried out it will enable a more detailed set of milestones to be put in place.

The Advisory Group's recommendations in relation to processing times for international protection, including legislative amendments as appropriate, are being considered by my Department as part of the ongoing analysis of progress towards achieving the objectives outlined in the White Paper.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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822. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the approximate number of applicants for international protection to whom the Dublin Regulation applied in each of the years 2015 to 2020. [17098/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Dublin III Regulation determines which EU Member State is responsible for examining an international protection application. It is based on the principle that the first Member State to facilitate entry into the EU should be responsible for examining the protection application. The objective of the Dublin Regulation is to ensure quick access to asylum procedures and the examination of an application on the merits by a single, clearly determined Member State.

The Dublin Unit of the International Protection Office (IPO) in the Immigration Service of my Department is responsible for determining whether an applicant should be transferred to another Member State (known as an outgoing transfer request) or have their application assessed in Ireland. The Unit also responds to requests from other Member States to transfer applicants to Ireland (known as an incoming transfer request).

Traditionally, a number of the transfer decisions made in this country have been to the UK, which was still bound by the EU Regulation until the end of 2020, under the transitional arrangements of the Withdrawal Agreement. Dublin Regulation transfers to the UK cannot now take place following the end of the transitional arrangements.

The table below sets out the number of Dublin Regulation transfer requests processed by the IPO and the number of people subject to a transfer order that were transferred from the State.

The table below sets out the number of incoming transfer requests accepted by the IPO under the Dublin III Regulations and the number of people transferred to Ireland to have their applications examined.