Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that Temporary Protection in Ireland applies to the following groups of people who have had to flee Ukraine due to the invasion by Russia:

a. Ukrainian nationals who were residing in Ukraine before 24 February 2022;

b. Nationals of a third country (other than Ukraine) or a stateless person who would have benefited from international protection (for example: Refugee status) or an equivalent national protection status in Ukraine and were residing there before 24 February 2022;

c. Family members of persons covered by a) and b), where their family already existed in Ukraine, prior to 24 February.

Family members include a spouse or partner, unmarried minor children of either of them, and their other close dependent family relatives who have been living with them as part of the family unit before 24 February 2022.

Temporary protection also applies to nationals of a third country (other than Ukraine) and stateless people who were residing in Ukraine before 24 February 2022 with a permanent Ukrainian residence permit, who cannot safely return to their country of origin.

There have been 98,754 Temporary Permissions granted since March 2022 to 8 November 2023. It should be noted that 926 of these permissions are no longer valid due to factors such as voluntary withdrawal, so the current valid permission is 97,828.

The tables below provide the information requested by the Deputy.

Table 1. Temporary Permissions granted by nationality during 2022

Nationality	Total
Afghanistan	39
Algeria	7
Armenia	16
Azerbaijan	13
Belarus	14
Egypt	23
Ethiopia	6
Georgia	68
Ghana	10
India	13
Iran (Islamic Republic Of)	5
Iraq	6
Jordan	5
Kenya	18
Lebanon	5
Moldova, Republic Of	30
Morocco	6
Nigeria	255
Other**	71
Russian Federation	123
Pakistan	19
Somalia	26
Sudan	13
Syrian Arab Republic	39
Tajikistan	25
Türkiye	14
Ukraine	68,681
United States Of America	15
Uzbekistan	16
Zimbabwe	5
Total	69,586

*Please note all figures are correct at time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.

**It is the policy of my Department not to release numbers where there are less than 5 in respect of any nationality, as there is a possibility that a person may be identifiable by releasing such information.

Table 2. Temporary Permissions granted by nationality during 2023 to 8 November 2023

Nationality	Total
Georgia	12
Moldova, Republic Of	11
Nigeria	19
Other**	61
Russian Federation	51
Ukraine	29,001
Uzbekistan	13
Total	29,168

*Please note all figures are correct at time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.

**It is the policy of my Department not to release numbers where there are less than 5 in respect of any nationality, as there is a possibility that a person may be identifiable by releasing such information.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that deportation and removal processes are an essential part of any immigration system. It must be acknowledged that those who do not have a legal right to remain in this country must remove themselves from the State. A person subject to a Deportation Order has no legal basis to remain in the State. Their case to remain in the State has been considered in detail and all available appeals processes have been exhausted.

The Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) is responsible for carrying out deportations. However, the Deputy will be aware that the numbers of Deportation Orders effected by GNIB does not take account of individuals who have left the State without informing my Department. It is the case that many individuals who are subject to Deportation Orders leave the State without notifying the relevant authorities and this particular category of individual is difficult to quantify.

The gov.ie website publishes, on a monthly basis, statistics on Deportation Orders and Enforcement/Removals, where a person had a previous International Protection application. The Deputy will find further details at the link below:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/48a28-international-protection-in-numbers/.

The tables below provide the number of deportation orders signed in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 (to 7 November 2023), listed by country of origin.

Deportation Orders Signed	2021
Morocco	5
Moldova, Republic of	5
Others**	23
Total	33

Deportation Orders Issued	2023
Afghanistan	15
Albania	169
Algeria	45
Bangladesh	10
Bolivia	5
Brazil	48
China (Including Hong Kong)	5
Egypt	5
Georgia	209
Malawi	6
Mauritius	5
Nigeria	27
Pakistan	65
South Africa	24
Viet Nam	7
Zimbabwe	8
Others**	60
Total	713

*Please note all figures are correct at time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.

**It is the policy of my Department not to release numbers where there are less than 5 in respect of any nationality, as there is a possibility that a person may be identifiable by releasing such information.

The tables below provide the number of deportation orders effected in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 (to 7 November 2023), listed by country of origin.

Deportation Orders Effected	2021
Albania	5
Pakistan	13
Others**	20
Total	38

Deportation Orders Effected	2022
Albania	14
Brazil	11
China (including Hong Kong)	9
Georgia	13
Iraq	5
Nigeria	20
Pakistan	18
Others**	28
Total	118

Deportation Orders Effected	2023
Brazil	7
Georgia	7
Pakistan	6
South Africa	8
Others**	29
Total	57

*Please note all figures are correct at time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.

**It is the policy of my Department not to release numbers where there are less than 5 in respect of any nationality, as there is a possibility that a person may be identifiable by releasing such information.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department takes all necessary steps to manage the international protection process efficiently and effectively, while ensuring the integrity of those processes is maintained at all times.

The number of staff in the International Protection Office (IPO) has increased by 89% this year. The extra resources assigned have already seen a doubling of decisions in the IPO this year.

In addition to resourcing, it is important to acknowledge that action has already been taken by the Department to manage the high volume of applications by utilising all of its current resources. A number of measures have been implemented to improve efficiencies and throughput, in tandem with improvements to the application, interview and decision making process, and these are having a significant impact on processing times.

I introduced a new accelerated procedure for international protection applicants from safe countries of origin was introduced in November 2022 which has significantly reduced processing times for first instance decisions.

The current median processing time for all applications at the IPO is 14 months, down from a median processing time of 18 months in 2022.

In addition to the above assigned staffing numbers, case processing Panel Members are contracted by the Department to make recommendations on International Protection cases to the International Protection Office. The number of panel members recruited in the IPO has also increased during 2023.

These resources are supported by increased training and quality control support from the UNHCR.

The International Protection Appeals Tribunal's (IPAT) operational capacity is also currently being significantly expanded to meet their increased caseload. Additional resources are being deployed through increasing the number of Tribunal members as well as further recruitment of administrative staff.

Please see below the total number of applications received for 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date.

Year of Application	No. of Applications
2021	2,649
2022	13,651
2023	10,869*

*Up to 10 November 2023

The data in the table below shows the latest statistics on first instance decisions.

Decision Year	Refugee Status (RS) Grants	Subsidiary Protection (SP) Grants	Permissions to Remain (PTR) Grant	Refusal All (RS, SP & PTR)	Withdrawals	Total Decisions
2022	1388	70	2076	871	492	4,897
2023*	2014	206	472	4097	328	7,117

There is no correlation between year of application and year decision is issued. The higher proportion of cases granted permission to remain in 2022 reflects the impact of the International Protection strand of the regularisation arrangements introduced in parallel with the general undocumented scheme.

Applicants with refugee status, subsidiary protection or permission to remain have permission to reside in the state.

First instance decisions can be appealed to IPAT. To the end of September, IPAT closed 1,106 cases this year, and upheld 72% of IPO decisions.

The Deputy may also wish to know that my Department has created a new website to provide a detailed overview of the International Protection process in Ireland which can be accessed at:

www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/304ba-international-protection/.

This site also provides detailed statistics and metrics in relation to processing of applications for protection. These statistics will be published on a monthly basis.

www.gov.ie/en/collection/48a28-international-protection-in-numbers/.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Since January 2021 nearly 22,000 first-time applications and renewal applications have been received by the Labour Market Access Unit of my Department and nearly 20,000 have been granted.

With effect from 9 February 2021, the waiting period to be granted labour market access for international protection applicants was reduced from 9 months to 6 months. The validity of the permission was also extended to 12 months from the date of issue. The permission may be renewed until a final decision is made on the person's international protection application.

Applicants are eligible to applyif:

• They are an international protection applicant; and
• They have waited at least 5 months from their “Application Received” date for their first instance recommendation; and
• They are cooperating with the international protection process – delays in receiving a recommendation must not be attributable to the applicant.

Following that, a person will be issued a permission for labour market access if, at 6 months, they have not yet received a first instance recommendation.

The granting of a labour market access permission does not necessarily confirm that the applicant has found employment. In total, since 2021 over 4,160 separate individuals have returned at least one LMA5 form, which records that they had found employment at some point over that time. However, please note these forms are not always returned to the Department. Accordingly, it is not possible using Departmental records to set out the percentage of international protection applicants that have achieved employment status, or the number of such persons who are awaiting a decision. I would not that where a person is granted a refugee status they no longer require a Labour Market Access permission and instead are issued with a Stamp 4 immigration permission.

Data on total number of applications received and first permits and renewed permissions processed since 2021 is detailed below.

	Applications Received (First & Renewal)	Applications Granted (First & Renewal)
2021	5080	4776
2022	9098	6383
2023	7806	8832

Data on the number of LMA5 forms returned is detailed below.

Year	Number of LMA5 Forms Returned
2021	1214
2022	1311
2023*	1641

*To June 2023. Applications from July are currently being processed.

Please note all data provided is correct at the time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 328, 329 and 330 together.

Immigration officials conduct passport checks on arrival to ensure passengers are properly documented in accordance with Section 11 of the Immigration Act 2004. The exercise of powers in this area is at all times subject to the law and to respect for individual rights.

The establishment of a person’s identity and nationality is an important feature of our immigration process. This is especially important in the context of persons who enter the Irish State for the purposes of making a claim for international protection. Irrespective of whether an applicant for international protection presents valid identity documentation at their point of arrival, over the course of the international protection determination process, they will be required to substantiate their claim for protection including as to their identity and country of origin.

The Border Management Unit (BMU) of my Department has responsibility for frontline immigration duties at Dublin Airport only. Other ports of entry are the responsibility of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

For security reasons and to protect the integrity of the immigration system, both I and my Department do not comment in detail on operational procedures of the BMU or the GNIB.

However, I can assure the Deputy that both the BMU and the GNIB are working with airlines and international colleagues to take measures both at domestic airports and points of embarkation to address this issue and to identify the point of embarkation of undocumented passengers. In addition to providing advice to airlines on specific queries, training is provided to airline ground staff on current travel documentation requirements.

If a person arriving at a port of entry to the State indicates or is identified as being in need of international protection they are admitted to the international protection process. My Department examines applications for international protection by anyone who indicates they wish to make an application, this is in accordance with our obligations under international and EU asylum law.

The International Protection Office does not collate statistics relating to applications for international protection based on whether such applicants were refused leave to land or whether a person had valid documentation upon arrival at a port of entry.