Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy was looking out for the others. I thank him. I appreciated seeing him there and wish him well with his new role in the European Parliament.

The Deputy raised a number of elements and I will try to work through them. We need to be honest with people on accommodation. The Deputy rightly raised the situation of a young man doing his best to get educated and get to work. That is something everybody is instinctively supportive of. I also need to be truthful that we have about 31,000 people in emergency accommodation. We all know and the Deputy has highlighted in the House that there is huge pressure on the system when it comes to accommodation. We are not in a position currently to provide accommodation at a location of international protection applicants' choice. When the Deputy boils that down to an individual case, I can see how difficult it is because these are human beings, but that is the truth. As we move beyond the emergency system and try to build a sustainable migration system, which we are doing in real time, one would hope we would be in a different position in relation to that.

I will directly follow up the individual case. It is an example of the broader issue. The Deputy is right that an international protection applicant has a right to work here after six months. I meet many small businesses across the country which are looking for labour. People are not looking to be sitting here on welfare. Peter Burke knows well there are businesses which would be delighted to give people an opportunity to earn a few bob and help the local economy.

Once someone has waited at least five months from the application received date, they can lodge their application. I have been told that in February 2024 a new online system was brought in to try to have a shorter processing time for applications. The system is currently processing applications made in April, in a processing time of around ten weeks. I will get the Deputy more detail on that because that does not seem to be the experience. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, tells me that when it comes to work permits, which I know is a slightly different system, roughly 20 days is the processing time.

More broadly in relation to international protection applicants, we are making some progress. I accept we are not where we want to be yet but we have doubled the number of staff in the international protection office. Despite only doubling the number of staff, they are trebling the number of decisions made. They are working extraordinarily hard. We have seen 11,052 people apply up to 5 July this year, compared to 5,625 last year. It is important to be truthful about this and the honest to God answer is we are trying to build a system for a much larger number of applications in real time. That requires not just extra staff, which will be forthcoming, and extra budget, which is forthcoming, but looking at using technology, operating more efficiently and effectively, doing online interviews and using facilities like CityWest and not just the international protection office. That work is under way.

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