Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 December 2018
265. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of first-time applications for international protection his Department received in 2018; the number of these that have been offered their first decision; the nature of this decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53871/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, applications for international protection are now processed at first instance, as part of a single application procedure, by the International Protection Office (IPO) which replaced the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC). The staff of that Office (the Chief International Protection Officer and International Protection Officers) are independent in the performance of their protection functions. The International Protection Appeals Tribunal, (IPAT), considers appeals against IPO refusals of international protection and the Tribunal is also independent in the performance of its functions
The IPO was established on 31 December 2016 following the commencement of the International Protection Act 2015 providing for the introduction of a single application procedure for people seeking international protection. The 2015 Act replaced the previous sequential application system with a single application process, for asylum, subsidiary protection and permission to remain in the State, bringing Ireland into line with the processing arrangements applicable in other EU Member States.
When the 2015 Act was commenced, the IPO inherited a substantial backlog of over 3500 cases from the former system - some 2000 from the former Refugee Appeals Tribunal plus 1500 from the former Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner. All IPO resources to date have been concentrated on scheduling and processing the backlog of legacy cases and prioritised cases (unaccompanied minors, and cases from refugee generating countries such as Syria, for example).
In total, the IPO will issue over 2,900 first instance recommendations/decisions by the end of November this year, compared to 1,781 in 2017. There were 3324 first-time applications for international protection received by the International Protection Office (IPO) in 2018 up to the end of November. This figure includes 17 reapplications. Of these 3324 applications, 271 have received a first instance decision from the Minister based on the recommendations of the International Protection Office.
Of these 271 first instance decisions, 266 were granted international protection by the Minister (refugee status or subsidiary protection status). 256 of these grant decisions relate to international protection applications made under the EU Relocation Programme under which applications, mostly from Syrian nationals, were prioritised by the IPO for fast-track decisions. The remaining 5 decisions were refusals of international protection by the Minister (both refugee status and subsidiary protection status).
Of the 3324 applications for protection received in 2018 up to the end of November, there were 4 decisions made by the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, (IPAT ) on appeal. Of these, 3 decisions were to grant international protection (refugee status or subsidiary protection status) and 1 decision was to affirm the recommendation of the International Protection Office to refuse international protection. In total, 488 decisions were issued by the Minister on foot of appeal decisions made by the IPAT up to 30th November 2018.
