The International Protection Office of my Department has remained open to offer applicants a service, in line with our international obligations to allow those who wish to claim international protection the opportunity to do so. The provision of the facility to allow people claim international protection is considered an essential service at all times, including during the Covid-19 crisis.
Physical attendance in the office has been strictly limited in line with public health guidance. Ensuring the safety of applicants, legal representatives and staff has resulted in additional logistical challenges that have limited the processing of applications and efforts to improve processing times, including the target set to make first instance decisions in the vast majority of cases within 9 months.
Despite these challenges, 2,276 applications for international protection were processed to completion last year – just under 67% of the total achieved in 2019.
My Department's main focus now is to get its processing system functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible, while adhering to all measures in place to combat the spread of COVID-19.
My Department is committed to implementing the key recommendations in the Expert Advisory Group Report to reduce processing times of both first instance decisions and appeals to 6 months, as outlined in the White Paper to End Direct Provision and Establish a New International Protection Support Service.
Work is under way in my Department towards identifying mechanisms which will assist with this. For example, additional ICT resources have been secured for this year, and detailed practical work, including the end-to-end review of relevant international protection processes by a multi-disciplinary team from within my Department, has now been completed.
The median processing times for applications processed to completion at first instance at the IPO in Q2 2021, are set out in the table below.
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Median processing times for applications processed to completion - IPO Quarter 2, 2021
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Prioritised cases
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19.5 months
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Non prioritised cases
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27 months
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All cases
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26.9 months
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