Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 30 Sep 1997

Vol. 480 No. 6

Written Answers - Asylum Seekers.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

534 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons who have applied for asylum on a month by month basis for the past six months; the number of applications processed; the average waiting time for an application to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15015/97]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

The information sought by the Deputy is set out as follows:

	March	April	May	June	July	August
Applications	199	380	423	454	378	354
* Decisions taken	140	70	131	1	34	22

(* It should be noted that the decisions taken do not necessarily relate to applications made in the period).

It is currently taking of the order of two years to decide on individual cases. The delay is due to the fact that the current procedures, which date back to 1985, were adequate to deal with 30 to 60 applications a year but these procedures are totally inadequate to deal with the large increase in asylum applications over the past three years, and over the past year in particular. This has caused the build up of a significant backlog of cases awaiting finalisation. Mechanisms for the clearance of this backlog are currently being examined in my Department and the UNHCR are being consulted in the matter.