Recommended improvements to asylum system will cost €135.4m

Improvements to the asylum system, recommended in a Government report being published on Tuesday, will cost €135.4 million over five years, it says. The 360-page report says, however, that savings of over €195 million will accrue if its recommendations on speeding up the legal process for asylum applicants, and granting residency to over 3,000 people who have been in the system for over five years, are implemented. It warns, however, that these anticipated savings are dependent on adequate resourcing for the legal bodies that process applications.

Its key recommendation is to replace the current system where applications for asylum, subsidiary protection and leave to remain are processed consecutively, with a single procedure where all potential applications are processed in a single process.

“In the absence of adequate resources, it will not matter how speedily applications will be processed under the single procedure because, with new applicants far outstripping current processing capacity at first instance, the result will be the development of a substantial backlog of applications,” says the report. About 3,000 asylum applications are expected this year.

The report, which will be brought to Cabinet on Tuesday morning by Minister for Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, and published at 4 pm, says: “Investing in decision-making not only yields returns in reducing time spent in the system but also makes financial sense.”

The cost of accommodating one person for a year in one of the 34 direct provision centres is €10,950. The cost of decision-making is a “fraction of this”. The €135.4 million cost over five years is made up of €14 million on improvements to the protection process; €69 million on improving living conditions in direct provision centres and €52.4 million on improving ancillary supports, such as health care, and counselling, to applicants.

The HSE has agreed to drop prescription charges for residents of direct provision centres, the report says, and it calls for this to be implemented as soon as possible.

The report says “no person should be in the system for five years or more”. Of the 7,937 people in the system on February 16th, this year, 55 per cent had been.

Of those 7,937 people, 49 per cent are in the protection process, with almost one-third for more than five years. Some 42 per cent are at leave-to-remain stage, three-quarters of them for more than five years, with 9 per cent at deportation stage, 88 per cent for more than five years.

Those awaiting decision at protection or leave-to-remain stage, in the system for more than five years, should be granted asylum or leave to remain “within a maximum of six months from the implementation start date”.

Those with a deportation order, in the system over five years – about 630 people – should have their deportation order “revoked”. This should be seen as “an exceptional measure” and they should be granted leave to remain, within six months of implementation of the report. The fast-tracking of cases within the existing system will “ensure the integrity of the protection process is maintained” and an estimated 3,350 people will benefit.

Mr Ó Ríordáin told The Irish Times that the only decision at Cabinet on the report would be to publish it. It had yet to be approved for implementation, he said.

“Cabinet will note it and publish it. My position is that I want it implement in full. I don’t see any reason for long departmental discussions about which parts should or can be implemented. They have all had representatives fully involved in the working group, so there should not be need for protracted discussions on it.”