Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 March 2013
235. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of asylum seekers in temporary accommodation for one year, two years, three years, four years, five years and over five years. [15728/13]
View answerThe Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), a functional unit of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department, is responsible for the accommodation of persons under the system of direct provision while their applications for international protection are being processed.
RIA itself has no function in determining whether someone should stay or not in its accommodation, except in the context of rare instances of serious and repeated misbehaviour. Its function is to provide accommodation and ancillary services to those who have sought international protection and who otherwise have no means of supporting themselves.
In relation to the information provided below which is collated from the RIA database, it is important to note that it is not possible to specify exactly how long each person has resided in RIA accommodation. Protection applicants are not required to live in RIA accommodation and in many cases, may move in and out of the direct provision system as their circumstances change. The following information relates to the length of time that has elapsed since applicants for international protection who are in the direct provision system first made their application. Therefore, it does not necessarily mean that those persons have lived in RIA accommodation for all of that period.
Subject to the important clarifications as indicated above, the information sought by the Deputy is as follows: number of persons in RIA accommodation for up to one year since they lodged their application is 593, between one year and two years is 489, between two years and three years is 533, between three and four years is 622, between four and five years is 806 and in excess of five years 1,712.
I acknowledge that the length of time spent in direct provision is an issue to be addressed and I have taken a number of steps to speed up the processing of applications including redeployment of resources and the establishment of a legal panel to assist INIS in processing a cohort of repatriation cases. I would expect to see significant dividends, in terms of cases finalised, from this initiative in the coming months. Further, I plan to republish the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2010 to create a single procedure for the processing of applications. These steps will reduce the time a person spends in direct provision while they await a final decision on their case.
Finally, it should be noted that there are significant numbers of persons living in RIA accommodation who may have exhausted the protection process but who await the outcome of court proceedings on aspects of their cases.
