Deportations: An asylum-seeker could be in the State legally for five years before being served with a deportation order following a negative decision, according to Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) John Purcell.
Delays of up to two years in interviewing applicants for asylum and in translating their questionnaires, along with delays of up to three years in sending out deportation orders, contributed largely to the low rate of successful deportations, Mr Purcell says in his annual report.
The cost of deportations is not examined, but the cost of administering the asylum system was €129 million in 2004.
The C&AG examined the status of the 10,813 deportation orders signed by the Minister for Justice since 1999. He found that 2,275 people had been deported or had left the State before the order was enforced.
Over 6,300 cases were described as "evaded", which the Department of Justice explained meant the person had not been located, was not being pursued and had been removed from the social welfare system. The majority were assumed to have left the State.
Of the 1,236 cases still actively being pursued, about 20 per cent were stalled pending the outcome of Irish-born child applications, while another 10 per cent were awaiting the outcome of judicial review proceedings.
When the process was examined, the C&AG found that there were significant delays between the date of application for asylum and the interview to determine eligibility to remain. This could take up to 22 months, with an average of nine months.
A similar period elapsed between the time an applicant's questionnaire was completed and when it was translated. The C&AG also found delays of one to three years from the date a negative recommendation was made to the time the deportation order was sent to the Garda National Immigration Bureau for enforcement.
In its response, the accounting officer for the Department of Justice pointed to the dramatic increase in asylum-seekers at the end of the 1990s, and weaknesses in the legislation of that time allowing for them to be processed. Delays in the system had now been significantly reduced, the officer said.