Refugee Status

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 October 2011

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Questions (352)

Jonathan O'Brien

Question:

382 Deputy Jonathan O’Brien asked the Minister for Justice and Equality, further to Parliamentary Question No. 456 of 4 October 2011, if his attention has been drawn to the fact that statistics on the Office of the Refugees Applications Commissioner website do not contain a breakdown of persons recommended or refused to be refugees per country of origin and per the top 15 countries of origin; as section 7(2) of the Refugee Act 1996 states the commissioner shall furnish to him such information relating to his or her activities as he may from time to time require, if this information from the office as the Act enables him to do; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28767/11]

Written answers

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Alan Shatter)

As I indicated in my reply of 4 October, the information requested by the Deputy is not readily available in my Department. It was for that reason that I directed him to the readily available information on the website of the Refugee Applications Commissioner. Some information of the nature sought by the Deputy, is also available from Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, to which my Department submits immigration and asylum related data on a regular basis.

Notwithstanding the availability of the above information sources, I have requested that the information referred to in the question be compiled and provided in the detail sought and made available directly to the Deputy as soon as possible. I would point out that the statutory provision referred to in the question is not intended to be used for the purpose of responding to ad hoc requests for information of the type requested by the Deputy.