Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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784. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who applied for international protection in the State from 2015 to date in 2025, by year, by country of origin, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63532/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I am fully committed to ensuring that Ireland’s International Protection system is robust, and rules based, and that our borders are protected.

The number of International Protection applications have been rising over the past number of years, reaching 18,500 in 2024. This year, we are beginning to see application numbers noticeably reduce with 34% fewer compared with the same period in 2024.

There has been a significant increase in investment into the international protection system which, combined with digitisation and process reengineering, has facilitated a major increase in processing capacity.

In 2024, the International Protection Office (IPO) delivered over 14,000 first 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.

In 2025, to the end of Q3, there has been a 51% increase in the total number of first decisions when compared to the same period in 2024. The IPAT has also increased the number of appeals completed to date in 2025 by 44% over the full year figure for 2024 with ongoing recruitment of Tribunal Members to increase its decision-making capacity.

My Department also continues to focus on preparing for the EU Migration and Asylum Pact in advance of June 2026. The Pact will provide a fair, sustainable and efficient asylum procedure. This will be achieved through convergence in asylum practices across the EU including standardised processing times for decisions: six months for a standard procedure, three months for accelerated and border procedures and two months for processing applicants who have applied for protection elsewhere in Europe.

The General Scheme of a new International Protection Bill to give effect to the measures of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact was approved by Government on 29 April 2025. The General Scheme has been published and referred to the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration for pre-legislative scrutiny. The drafting of the Bill is underway.

Enactment of the Bill and commencement of the Act is required by 11 June 2026.

The attached table details the number of International Protection applications made from 2015 up to 12 November 2025, by year and country of origin.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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785. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who have been granted temporary protection in the State from 2015 to date in 2025, by year, by country of origin, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63533/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection hold temporary permission to remain in Ireland, renewable annually for as long as the Directive remains in force.

On 15 July 2025, the Justice and Home Affairs Council extended Temporary Protection by a year until March 2027, providing certainty for beneficiaries who can continue to avail of the protections that the Directive provides.

Under Article 2, the Temporary Protection Directive 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.

The table below shows the number and nationality of people who have been granted temporary protection in the State from March 2022 up to 16 November 2025. In that time, temporary protection was granted to 122,379 individuals of whom 99% (121,123) were Ukrainian citizens and the remainder were third country nationals.

635 have voluntarily withdrawn from Temporary Protection which involves returning the original Temporary Protection Certificate.

As there are no routine exit checks on people leaving the State it is not possible to say how many beneficiaries of temporary protection have left Ireland in total. However, the Deputy may also wish to be aware that the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has a publication which focuses on the estimated number of Ukrainians present in the country and can be accessed here: www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/fp/p-aui/arrivalsfromukraineinirelandseries16/

*Please note that there is no data collected prior to 3 March 2022 as the Temporary Protection Directive came into effect 4 March 2022.

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

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

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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786. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality in respect of applicants for international protection who claimed to be under 18 years-of-age, the number in each of the years 2015 to date in 2025, b for whom minor status was accepted, rejected or remained under determination at year end, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63534/25]

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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787. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of international protection applicants in each of the years 2015 to date in 2025 whose claimed minor status was referred to, or appealed to, medical or other expert reviewers for the purposes of age assessment; the outcome of those referrals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63535/25]

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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788. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current arrangements in place for assessing the age of persons who claim to be minors when seeking international protection or temporary protection, including the role of his Department, the International Protection Office and Tusla; whether these arrangements are under review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63536/25]

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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789. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if his Department has examined the age-assessment model in operation in Denmark, including the use of medical imaging and other scientific methods, with a view to speeding up age assessments in Ireland; if any analysis, advice or reports have been prepared on this option; if any novel testing methods such as qPCR or droplet digital PCR based techniques for age estimation have been considered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63537/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 786, 787, 788 and 789 together.

It has not been possible to collate the information requested by the Deputy in the time available. I will write to the Deputy directly once the information is to hand.