Sir, – I noted with interest An Taoiseach’s recent assertion that the vast majority of international asylum claims are genuine and that far-right claims to the contrary need to be debunked (“Varadkar warns ‘far-right myths’ are gaining traction in Ireland”, News, December 26th).
It would be of great help to clarify matters if reliable statistics were available in the matter but the paucity of same from the International Protection Office (IPO) and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration service (INIS) in the Department of Justice does not inspire confidence.
The last available statistics from the IPO for the 2022 calendar year indicate that of cases heard at first instance, 1,383 people were granted refugee status, 69 were subsidiary protection, 2,081 were given leave to remain, and 869 were refused.
It is noteworthy that the leave to remain figure was probably heavily skewed by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s amnesty for those over two years in the asylum process in December of 2021.
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Suffice to say that at a time of a current backlog of around 15,000 international protection claimants, the 2023 IPO figures should prove interesting, assuming the Government is in a rush to publish them. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FLYNN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.