Bernard J. Durkan
Ceist:213 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average length of time taken to process an asylum seeker's application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2841/00]
Written Answers. - Asylum Applications.
All applicants who lodged a claim for asylum up to the end of March-April 1999 have at this time been afforded the opportunity of a substantive interview with some minor exceptions, and with the exception of those cases in respect of whom issues are outstanding under the Dublin Convention. Any decisions at first instance, outstanding for more than three months following interview, of which there are relatively few, will be notified to applicants by the end of February.
Arrangements are currently being finalised to enable a greater use to be made of accelerated procedures, following the decision of the Government to further augment the staffing in this area to deal with cases speedily which are manifestly well-founded and manifestly unfounded. Manifestly well-founded cases will be identified at an early stage to ensure that a person who is likely to succeed in the asylum process gets the benefit of refugee status as soon as possible without being unnecessarily delayed in the recently enlarged backlog. Manifestly unfounded procedures will help to eliminate at an early stage applications which appear to have little or no relevance to the definition of a refugee in section 2 of the Refugee Act, 1996, as amended. Applicants refused as manifestly unfounded have the opportunity to appeal to the independent appeals authorities with legal assistance for that purpose. All manifestly unfounded refusals are notified to the UNHCR which is entitled to submit comments to the appeals authority in each case.
The current average period for an individual determination of an asylum claim averages from four to twelve months.
The volume of appeals being lodged significantly exceeded the number which could be considered by the four appeals authorities which were in place. In this regard, I made arrangements to appoint a further three appeals authorities to create a wider panel to be available to address this demand and I am presently arranging to expand this panel further.
The aim of my Department is to minimise the time taken from date of application to completion of the procedure in a refugee determination process which meets the highest EU and international standards. If additional resources are required to achieve this aim, I will seek those resources.