Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Apr 2001

Vol. 534 No. 5

Written Answers - Immigration Services.

John Perry

Question:

59 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the extent to which the new immigration reception and integration agency is effective; the number of people who have been dispersed since it started; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7148/01]

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

I assume the Deputy is referring to the Reception and Integration Agency, which has been established following a decision of the Government in March last year. Pending the enactment of legislation, the Reception and Integration Agency – which has replaced the Directorate for Asylum Support Services and, with effect from 2 April last, incorporated the Refugee Agency – will operate on a non-statutory basis.

The decision to establish the Reception and Integration Agency follows an earlier decision of the Government that the recommendations in the report of the interdepartmental working group on the integration of refugees in Ireland should form the framework for integration policy and be implemented. The establishment of a single organisational structure – within the overall framework of structures for asylum and immigration – for co-ordinating and implementing integration policy is one of the key recommendations of the working group. The Reception and Integration Agency is the vehicle for implementing this recommendation and its establishment facilitates a cohesive, co-ordinated approach to both the reception of asylum seekers and the integration of refugees. Until recently, both the Directorate for Asylum Support Services and the Refugee Agency, which operated under the aegis of my own Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs, respectively, had functions in relation to the integration of different categories of refugees. The new arrangements have rationalised previous structures and represent a more effective use of resources.

The Reception and Integration Agency has responsibility for: planning and co-ordinating the provision of services to both asylum seekers and refugees; co-ordinating and implementing integration policy for all refugees and persons who, though not refugees, are granted leave to remain; and responding to conflict crisis situations which result in relatively large numbers of refugees arriving in Ireland within a short period of time, for example, the Kosovar nationals who were invited here by the Government in 1999.

The agency, like its predecessor – the Directorate for Asylum Support Services – functions as a cross agency/departmental, multi-disciplinary team. In that regard, in addition to my own Department, staff assigned to it are drawn from the Departments of Health and Children, Social, Community and Family Affairs, Education and Science, Environment and Local Government, Dublin Corporation, the Eastern Regional Health Authority, the Defence Forces and the Irish Red Cross. This structure greatly facilitates the co-ordination of services across a wide spectrum of activity from accommodation to health and welfare services to education to support structures in local communities.

Under the system of direct provision administered by the Reception and Integration Agency and introduced for asylum seekers arriving on or after 10 April 2000 approximately, 9,000 asylum seekers have been dispersed, up to 6 April 2001, to 65 accommodation centres in 23 counties.