Sharon Keogan: Where Are the Asylum No-Show Numbers?

Thank you Minister Collins, you're very welcome in this afternoon, or this morning, and I rise today because this House cannot meaningfully discuss international protection or the functioning of the IPO process without access to the most basic operational data, and right now we don't have it. The matter I raise is the need for the Minister to provide the annual number of applicants who fail to attend their scheduled international protection interviews to explain why this information is not stored in a systematic accessible format and to set out whether proper system for the recording and reporting these figures will be implemented. If the state cannot tell us how many people miss their interview, how can it claim to understand the system it administers? And how can we talk about capacity, backlogs or efficiency when such fundamental facts are unknown? Over the past year I've repeatedly been told that the no-show figures exist only within individual files and that the retrieving them would require an onerous manual trawl. Whether that is accurate or reflects deeper structural issues, the effects is the same. The Oireachtas is left without essential information. We cannot legislate, scrutinise policy or reassure the public in the dark. What makes this more troubling is that the department's own standard operating procedure shows that interview attendance is already recorded, reasons for no-shows are entered, daily reports are issued, spreadsheets are updated and no-show status is tracked. So how can data captured across multiple internal points not be retrievable at an organisational level? This is not a criticism of staff but of systems designed and governance. Without systemic data collection we cannot identify trends, allocate resources or understand how much of the backlog is avoidable. Public debate becomes guesswork and that is unfair on everyone involved. A modern asylum system must be evidence-based and transparent. Anything less is unsustainable. So today I ask the Minister to do three things. First, provide the most recent figures for interview no-shows. Second, explain why they are not centrally stored. And third, commit to implementing a proper recording and reporting system so this House and the public can understand how the process is functioning. I bring this matter because the public deserve clarity, the staff deserve workable systems and the Oireachtas deserve the information it needs to do its job. And if the Minister is serious about transparency in the international protection process, then implementing systemic data recording on interview attendance is not just advisable, it is unavoidable. Thank you. Thank you Senator Keoghan for raising the matter which I'm taking on behalf of Minister O'Callaghan and I want to assure the Senator that this is a central priority for our department and that our migration laws are robust and enforced. Over the last number of years there has been a significantly increased investment into the international protection system to improve efficiencies and output as well as enhancing the application, interview and decision-making process for applicants. In 2025 the International Protection Office, the IPO, delivered over 20,200 first instance decisions. This is a 44% increase compared to approximately 14,100 decisions made in 2024. In relation to applicants for international protection who do not present for their personal interview, this can be due to a number of reasons including where the applicant is unable to attend due to illness or due to extreme weather situations. When an applicant provides a medical certificate or a reasonable explanation either prior to or within three working days of the missed interview, a new date for their interview is arranged. In situations where no medical certificate or reasonable reason are forthcoming, the applicant's case is considered as being potentially non-cooperative. This involves applications being assessed on the basis of the information that is on file at the time. Where an applicant does not attend a scheduled interview but is able to provide a reasonable explanation, a medical certificate or a medical certificate, the interview is rescheduled. In relation to cases before the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, the IPAT, where an appellant does not attend their scheduled hearing, a communication issues to them and their legal representative advising them that they have a time frame of three days in which to engage with the tribunal or else the appeal will be marked for withdrawal. If a response is received within the three days, the assigned tribunal member will consider if the explanation is acceptable to proceed. Where there is no contact, the tribunal issues a notification letter advising the appeal is deemed withdrawn. Information recorded in this regard is not stored in a manner which allows detailed data to be extracted. With a transition to the Migration Pact underway, system updates and moves to improved databases will also allow for enhanced data processing and reporting. I can confirm that from June it is planned that all interview data will be collected in a manner that will allow for reporting. I want to assure the Senator that our department is committed to enhancing transparency and effective communication of our department's work including in the area of international protection. I thank the Minister for the reply but really I am not filled with confidence in relation to the question that I asked in relation how the data is kept in relation to non-cooperative people that turn up within the international protection application process and they are taken out of the system. But are the taxpayers in this country still paying the daily allowance for that individual? Are they still paying housing for that individual? Are they still paying for the medical cards for that individual? If that individual is non-cooperative and we don't know how many of those people exist, that is the problem. And I think that is a broader problem for the Department of International Protection. So Minister, there's a body of work to be done there within your department and the taxpayers need to know if people aren't turning up for their interviews and they turn out to be non-cooperative because they have lied when they presented to the International Protection Office at their first entry and they go missing. But they're getting welfare, they're getting their accommodations and they're getting their medical cards, they're getting everything met by the state. That's simply not good enough. We need to know how many of those are in this country at this moment in time and if they're not here legally and claiming asylum, they should be deported. Thanks Gerard. So as the Senator will be aware, we as in Ireland have opted into the EU Asylum and Migration Pact which will come into effect in June of this year. The pact will provide a fair, sustainable and efficient asylum procedure. This will be achieved through convergence in asylum practices across the European Union and through the introduction of streamlined and faster processing times. As part of efforts to improve efficiencies in the processing of applications, applications have been processed at both the IPO offices on Mount Street and at City West Reception Centre for some time now. On the 1st of July of 2025, our department introduced the first phase of a gradual transition to a new accelerated end-to-end process for applicants entering the international protection system in Ireland. This new accelerated process mirrors elements of the future, broader procedure and screening required by the EU pact on migration and asylum while still adhering to the International Protection Act of 2015. So we will continue to improve the efficiencies and the transparencies where possible in relation to the international protection process.