A firm commitment has been made, under the Programme for Government, to "introduce comprehensive reforms of the immigration, residency and asylum systems, which will include a statutory appeals system and set out rights and obligations in a transparent way". This commitment will be delivered in the form of a new Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which I intend to publish later this year. Of particular note, the Bill will provide for the introduction of a single application procedure for the investigation of all grounds for protection and any other grounds presented by applicants seeking to remain in the State. This will provide protection applicants with a final decision on their application in a more ‘straight forward’ and timely fashion.
As I have outlined previously to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence, several hundred amendments to the Bill are anticipated, the majority of a technical nature. In light of this and other considerations, I have decided that, instead of engaging in an extremely cumbersome process of tabling hundreds of amendments to the text of the Bill published by the last Government in 2010, it would be much more efficient to publish a new and enhanced text. This proposition has been broadly welcomed by the Joint Committee. Such an approach can take account of current Government policy and intervening developments while incorporating the many technical and other amendments anticipated. It also provides an opportunity to address the key policy issues, including those which remain of concern to Members and other stake-holders in the Bill.
Work on the Bill continues, therefore, on that basis, including in cooperation with the Offices of Parliamentary Counsel and of the Attorney General while also taking account of any relevant rulings by the Courts and any further submissions received. I can confirm that there are ongoing and very detailed consultations with Advisory Counsel on a number of specific aspects of the Bill which need to be addressed in preparation for its publication later this year. At the same time, the main components of the Bill will continue to reflect those of the 2010 version.
The Deputy may be aware that I made new Regulations last year governing the investigation and determination of applications for subsidiary protection in the State. The European Union (Subsidiary Protection) Regulations 2013, which came into effect on 14 November 2013, were made to address certain matters which arose from the judgment of the High Court in January 2013 in the MM case. Under the new Regulations, responsibility for the processing of applications for subsidiary protection now rests with the Refugee Applications Commissioner with appeals to be dealt with by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. Both of these bodies are independent in the exercise of their statutory functions and they have substantial experience in the area of asylum investigations and appeals, respectively. Once the new arrangements have bedded down, my aim is for subsidiary protection applications currently on hand to be processed to finality by the statutory bodies concerned in the shortest possible time-frame consistent with quality and fair assessment of all cases and of course, subject to the cooperation of applicants and no further legal impediments arising. In those circumstances I would anticipate very significant inroads to be made on the caseload by the end of 2014.
