Asylum seekers: how the numbers add up

I'M afraid there was a major error in the information given by Caroline O'Doherty in her piece on asylum seekers (Irish Examiner, August 30).

She says: "This year... the number of applicants up to the end of last month (July) was just 647."

In fact, 647 was the number of applications in the month of July alone. The number this year to the end of July was 5,397. She also refers, mysteriously, to "an accelerated deportation rate."