Vol. 531 No. 2
180 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of additional personnel for the asylum and immigration services approved by the Cabinet in June 2000 who have actually been deployed; the sections and agencies in which they have been deployed; and the date by which the remainder will be fully deployed. [5276/01]
In June 2000 the Government approved the recruitment of an additional 370 staff to deal with the speeding up of processing times in respect of asylum applications, including appeals, and to deal with the consequential increase in the level of repatriations of people whose applications for refugee status are unsuccessful. The number of additional staff appointed to date is 203.
The additional staff have been deployed to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, the Office of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, the ministerial decisions unit, and the immigration and citizenship division of my Department.
While a large number of the additional staff are now in place recruitment of the outstanding staff is continuing as a matter of priority. Some of the outstanding staff are being recruited by a special competition organised by my Department which is being advertised at the present time.
