State is willing to act on asylum seeker report

The Government has signalled it will act on many of the recommendations contained in a new report on the asylum seeker process, amid calls from support organisations to overhaul the system.

The working group report on direct provision and the protection process was published yesterday.

It contained 170 recommendations, including allowing people awaiting a decision at the protection process and leave-to-remain stage — and in the system for five years or more — to stay in Ireland.

Publishing the report yesterday, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that some of the recommendations in the report would be covered by the implementation of the International Protection Bill, including a single application procedure.

However, she said some people in the system will now have a “fast-tracked” decision on their status. And she ruled out an amnesty.

The minister said recommendations would be considered, particularly regarding the living conditions of many asylum seekers in DP centres.

Before the launch, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the minister of state for new communities, had tweeted: “Implementation must be a priority” and “this report will turn the page on the scandal of Direct Provision”.

At the report launch, he said: “I will be urging Government to consider quickly those recommendations that can be agreed and progressed in the immediate future.”

Many of the recommendations put forward by the working group, which was chaired by former High Court Judge Bryan McMahon, had been flagged in advance, such as the need to cut the amount of time taken to reach a decision on an applicant’s asylum claim, the possibility of allowing those in the asylum system for nine months to work, and allowing the Ombudsman and Ombudsman for Children to investigate complaints.

The report also revealed that of the estimated 7,937 people in the system on February 16 last, 55% have been in the system for more than five years. Of the 7,937 people in the system, 49% are in the protection process, and 42% are at the leave to remain stage, and 21% are children.

Almost half of the people in the system live in direct provision accommodation centres — 41% of whom have been in the system for more than five years. The report recommends that all families should have access to cooking facilities and their own private living space in so far as practicable, identifying the end of 2016 as the deadline for these recommendations to be implemented.

The working group said projected savings yielded from its recommendations of €194.5m over five years would cover estimated additional costs of €135.4m over the same period.

Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, was among those to welcome the report and to urge the Government to act quickly on it. “Direct provision, as we know it, must now end,” she said.

Grainia Long, ISPCC chief executive, said the Government needed to act immediately on the proposals.