Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan denies new immigration law ‘will be cruel’

The application and appeals time frame for international protection is to be reduced to three months under new legislation brought to Cabinet yesterday.

Mr O’Callaghan got approval from his colleagues in Cabinet to begin drafting new asylum laws.

The legislation will also change the appeals process, which will see an appeal not automatically take the form of an oral hearing.

Mr O’Callaghan said the current asylum laws in Ireland were not fit for purpose.

“They take too long. They’re too costly in terms of having to provide accommodation,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

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While the new timelines will be three months, some applications could take up to six months or as little as two months.

Currently an application can take up to three years.

Increased resources and staffing will result in shorter processing times.

“The opportunity to have an oral hearing on appeal level will not be the de-facto position, which it is at present,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon criticised the proposed changes. He said the sweeping changes could result in a system that is unduly harsh.

“All of us can absolutely accept that we need an asylum process that is far more efficient but that doesn’t mean we should have one that almost has cruelty built in to it,” he said.

“The idea that we can take decision times down to three months where previously they’d been up to two and three years, that seems to me that will be something that is unduly harsh.”

Mr O’Callaghan said that was not the intention of the new laws.

“What I think is cruel is for somebody to be in the asylum process and to have their application and consideration of it hanging over them for periods of three years,” Mr O’Callaghan said.