Asylum pay rise ‘U-turn’ queried

The head of the Irish Refugee Council has queried why the government-appointed Working Group on Protection shelved plans to provide an interim report last January, which might have brought forward an increase in weekly payments to asylum seekers.

Thu, 23 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Noel Baker

Writing on her personal blog, Sue Conlon – who was a member of the working group until stepping down last month – referenced minutes from meetings she attended to outline how initial plans for an interim report were dropped and proposals for increasing the weekly payments to asylum seekers were “watered down”.

The article, reprinted in today’s Irish Examiner, outlines how the Department of Social Protection suggested an increase to the weekly payment was “feasible” in the short term.

According to the minutes of a meeting held on December 8: “[The Department of Social Protection] stated that it was feasible to implement an increase in the [Direct Provision] payment in the short term.

“It was indicated that it may be practical to introduce an increase within a four-week period from date of decision.”

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

Ms Conlon writes that in theory, and subject to government approval, an increase to the payment could have been in place as early as the end of January 2015 with an interim proposal that the weekly adult payment increase from €19.10 to €38, with a complementary rise to the payment for children.

According to Ms Conlon: “But somewhere between 8 and 22 December something happened. On 22 December the working group met, its last meeting before Christmas and, therefore, the time that interim recommendations to be made to the ministers should be considered. But the working group was advised that there would be no interim report, only a final report by Easter.”

She said the Department of Social Protection then introduced other options regarding the payment which “undermined” the interim proposal – including “other options which were lower, the final one being just a €3 per week increase for an adult and less than €2 per week for a child”.