Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 March 2015
307. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who registered as refugees or applied for refugee and-or asylum status resulting in an application for residency in each year from 2002 to 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9935/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that details of the number of persons who applied for asylum for the years 2002 to 2013 are published in the annual reports of the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner which are available at http://www.orac.ie/website/orac/oracwebsite.nsf/page/orac-stats-en.
Provisional monthly statistics for 2014 and 2015 are also available on the site. In that regard, it should be noted that there were 1,448 applications for asylum in 2014 which represents an increase of 53% on the previous year. The rate of increase in the number of applications is accelerating to date this year with 416 applications recorded for the first two months of 2015 compared to a total of 181 for the same period in 2014.
