Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 September 2014
593. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons within direct provision; of those, the number who made their application for protection more than five years ago; the number who have family members with outstanding or completed applications for protection; and the number of individual family units within direct provision. [33551/14]
View answerThe Direct Provision system is managed by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) of my Department. For the most part, this represents a cashless system with the State assuming responsibility for providing suitable accommodation for asylum seekers on a full board basis. RIA currently provides full board accommodation and ancillary services to just over 4,300 persons in 34 centres across the State. It should be noted that the number of new asylum seekers to date in 2014 is approximately 40% higher than the same period in 2013.
The average length of stay within the system is currently 4 years. In this regard, a significant factor impacting on time spent in direct provision is legal proceedings initiated by many protection applicants in relation to decisions on their applications for protection in the State. It should be noted that there are about 1,350 judicial review cases in the Courts related to asylum and immigration matters. When account is taken of other family members the best estimate is that these judicial reviews impact on some 2,000 persons in the protection system, the majority of whom are residing in the direct provision system. A recent analysis revealed that approximately 50% of persons in the direct provision system have either judicial review applications pending, are the subject of deportation orders, or are seeking leave to remain in the State for non-protection reasons.
That said, I acknowledge that applicants are in the system too long and that steps must be taken to deal with that. Accordingly, legislative reform aimed at establishing a single procedure is a key step towards removing the structural delays which are a feature of our existing protection system. As the Deputy may be aware the Statement of Government priorities 2014-2016 commits to the introduction of a separate Protection Bill to include provision for a single application procedure for the investigation of all grounds for protection. This reform will simplify and streamline existing arrangements and provide applicants with a final decision on their protection application in a more straight forward and timely fashion and will also, as a consequence, reduce the length of time that applicants spend in the direct provision system. Work on the Bill has commenced and the intention is to have the new legislation enacted by April, 2015.
The Government has also committed to establish an independent Working Group to report to Government on improvements with the protection process, including direct provision, and supports for asylum seekers. The Working Group will be established in the near future and it is expected that it will report to Government by year end.
In relation to the other statistical information sought, it is important to state that RIA is keen to provide as much detail as is practicable on the system which it is charged with operating. Extensive statistical information is on its website - www.ria.gov.ie including Annual Reports covering the years from 2007 to 2013 inclusive. These Annual Reports provide a variety of information, including a breakdown of the numbers of adults and children in each direct provision centre, details of the number of family units and the length of time persons, overall, have been residing in the direct provision system. Much of this information is also provided on a centre by centre basis.
