The Department of Justice is considering the Supreme Court's suggestion that it might put a time limit on the processing of asylum applications, a mechanism used in most other EU member states.
Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, David Stanton, has told the Dáil that such a limitation may be a permissible response to yesterday's court ruling that the current absolute ban on asylum-seekers looking for work is, in principle, unconstitutional.
Mr Stanton was responding to a call by People Before Profit deputies Bríd Smith and Mick Barry and Fianna Fáil's Fiona O'Loughlin for Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald to outline what action will be taken on foot of yesterday's Supreme Court judgment that the State had, in principle, been acting unconstitutionally by placing a legal bar on a Burmese asylum - seeker looking for work during his eight years in Direct Provision centeres awaiting a ruling on his application for sanctuary here.
Mr Stanton said the full implications of the important judgement are already being examined carefully, and that for some weeks, the broad issue had been under review by his officials.
He said his department is considering proposing to government an option mentioned in the judgement that the State might put a legal or practical time limit on the processing of asylum applications.
He said the right to work question is closely intertwined with the processing times for initial decisions on asylum applications and that in many EU Member States, it is not unfettered and usually arises in EU countries after nine months to a year.
He added that in many instances it is limited to particular job categories and cited the examples of Sweden and Portugal where the granting of a right to work coincides with the withdrawal of tee state's financial supports for asylum-seekers.
He highlighted what he called "a radical improvement in the overall length of stay in Direct Provision" here.
Two years ago, the official working group on Direct Provision found that 36% of applicants had been in the system for three years or less. But he said today's figure is 72%. He said this was due to concerted efforts to deal with cases which are five years or more in the system.
Mr Stanton said wider implications of yesterday's judgement in relation to the operation of the Common Travel Area and the upcoming Brexit negotiations are also being examined across government departments.
He said is that the Government, through its various measures to improve processing rates is already moving to the stage whereby first instance decisions on applications will be made as quickly as possible with persons who are granted status having an automatic right to work.
He said this positive development will contribute to the official response to the judgement.
