Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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140. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average processing time for Palestinian asylum seekers who hold a Palestinian passport and Israeli issued identity document; the average wait time for a decision for such persons following an IPO interview; and the average waiting time for such persons who have also presented a medical legal report and have already been deemed 'vulnerable' by IPAS. [21622/25]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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141. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to provide international protection to Palestinian protection applicants currently in Ireland through an expedited process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21623/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 140 and 141 together.

The decision to accelerate and prioritise particular international protection cases, or groups of cases, in accordance with the provisions of the 2015 Act, is kept under review. At this time, applications from Palestinian nationals are not accelerated.

The median waiting time from the date of application for a first instance decision to be issued from the International Protection Office (IPO) in 2025 is 17 months for applications considered under the normal procedure and four months for applicants subject to accelerated processing.

For the small number of individual cases where the IPO is made aware of vulnerabilities by way of a medical certificate being submitted, applicants are scheduled earlier for interviews. Information on these cases is not captured in such a way that processing times can be provided.

However, I can assure the Deputy that it is a priority to have recommendations made on all international protection applications as soon as possible. This will give status to those who are entitled to international protection to rebuild their lives here, while also ensuring faster decision making in respect of those who do not meet the criteria.

In 2024 the International Protection Office (IPO) delivered over 14,000 first-instance decisions compared to over 8,500 in 2023, while the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) closed around 3,100 appeals in 2024 compared to over 1,700 in 2023.

I intend to further invest in the immigration system to support an ambitious target in the IPO of 25,000 first-instance decisions this year. The IPAT also aims to increase the number of appeals completed over the course of 2025 with recruitment of Tribunal Members to increase its decision-making capacity currently taking place.