Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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557. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 472 and 473 of the 29 May 2025, if the information requested in relation to the current average duration of employment of staff in each of the agencies involved in the end-to-end asylum process and the current number of vacancies in each of the agencies involved in the end-to-end asylum process are now available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35404/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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It is a central priority for me that our immigration system is robust and enforced.

There has been significant investment in staff across the entire international protection process in recent years.

The International Protection Office (IPO) now has 614 staff, an increase of 190% since 2022 and recruitment is ongoing. In addition, 241 case processing panel members are also contracted by the IPO.

There has also been a substantial increase in resourcing to IPAT through both its budget and staffing. This has been particularly evident in the past two years with the Tribunal budget having increased by 95% since 2023.

My Department has been actively recruiting for additional whole-time and part-time Tribunal Members over the last two years, with the competitive stages of the most recent competitions concluding within the last month. While the candidates who have provisionally qualified from those competitions are going through pre-appointment clearance at present, I expect to be in a position to significantly increase the number of part-time and whole time Members between now and the end of 2025. In addition, the number of administrative staff at the Tribunal have increased from 37 at the start of 2023 to 87 today.

The International Protection and Integration Division (IPID) of my Department provides accommodation in over 320 centres around the country. From 2022 to 2024, this demand-led system had to grow rapidly, as a result of a sudden and sustained increase in people applying for international protection. The increase in the demand for services was accompanied by a corresponding growth in the number of staff members.

As of the end of December 2023, IPID employed 135 staff. As of today, that number has increased to 225. This represents an increase of 67%. Furthermore, the Division currently employs an additional 84 contract staff.

Recruitment and appointments are continuing across all three of the above functions and as such vacancies exist as detailed below, however, these needs to be seen against the backdrop of dramatic expansion in staff numbers in recent years, such that the level of staff deployed in this field is by far the highest it has ever been.

** There are 24 vacancies for Whole Time Tribunal Members and one additional professional technical post at grade of senior legal researcher.

AP – Assistant Principal

PTP – Professional Technical Post

CR – Construction Roles

HEO/LR – Higher Executive Officer/Legal Researcher

AO – Administrative Officer

EO – Executive Officer

CO – Clerical Officer

TCO – Temporary Clerical Officer

The table below details the current tenure at the IPO, IPAT and IPID.

All data provided is correct at time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.