Not only is the state seemingly in the dark about the number of Public Service Cards that are issued to persons who have applied for International Protection, but there are large anomalies between the amount of Personal Public Service Numbers (PPS) that are issued in the case of certain nationalities and the overall numbers whose presence here is accounted for through asylum applications and work permits.
Rural Independent TD Carol Nolan had asked the Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, to provide “the number of public service cards distributed to international protection applicants in each of the years 2019 to 2023 and to date in 2024; the expiry date on PSC cards that were distributed in each of those years.”
In her response, Minister Humphreys said that the immigration status of an applicant for a Public Service Card is not sought when a card is issued. She added that the Department of Social Protection “does not collect data on the numbers of PPSNs allocated to international protection applicants,” and “therefore that my Department does not hold records of the number of PSCs issued to international protection applicants.”
Given that a Public Service Card can only be issued to someone who has a PPS number, the Department is basically admitting that one of the key means of the state determining how many applicants for International Protection are actually in the country, and are in possession of a PPS number which entitles them to a range of state paid benefits, is not available to be employed in any such assessment.
That is important given the gap that exists between the amount of new PPS numbers that are issued in a year and the numbers of people from countries outside of the EU and the EEA who, in the vast majority of cases, are only legitimately resident in the state as persons who have been issued with a work permit, who have applied for International Protection, who have been issued with a student visa or who have been granted residency as the relative of a person working here or who has been granted asylum here.
In the case of Afghanistan, there were a total of 2,300 persons claiming Afghan nationality who were issued with a new PPS number in the Irish state between the beginning of 2023 and the end of April 2024. Of that number just 15 have been issued with a work permit, and a further 640 applied for International Protection.
That leaves a gap of 1,645 persons of Afghan nationality who were issued with a new PPS number in the last 16 months but whose reason for being here is not clear. It is unlikely that there are more than 1,600 Afghans who have a student visa.
The same gap between PPS issues and persons whose reason for being in the state are known is also evident in the case of;
Nigerians have been hitting the lights out at the top of the batting order for International Protection applications and of 7,083 PPS numbers issued to Nigerians just 1,350 have gone to persons who have been granted with a work permit. Compared to 3,010 applicants for asylum of whom 2,461 arrived between the start of January and the end of April.
The lack of clarity around this of course is not assisted by the fact that the Department responsible for issuing PPS numbers doesn’t even know how many are issued to applicants for International Protection. You may be sure they know everything about any Irish citizen who is placed in the unfortunate situation of having to claim social welfare.
One possible explanation is that the numbers of non EU and EEA residents who have an Irish PPS numbers also includes persons who have come here to join persons who have been issued with a work permit or who have been granted residency as asylum seekers and have brought other members of their family to join them through the family reunification scheme.
With regards to work permits, no-one other than people who have permits as critical workers can bring their family to live with them immediately. Other permit holders can only apply after a year and the criteria are restricted to partner and children and any family member who is working must have a separate work permit.
In any event that clearly does not apply to countries such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Botswana, Georgia and others which have minimal numbers of persons here who are legitimately working. Which leaves family reunification. However, statistics show that these also account on an annual basis for very small numbers of people and therefore do not explain the gap in the PPS issues.
In the case of Afghanistan, there were 786 applications by persons resident here to have family join them but only 79 were granted. The figures for 2024 to date are 79 applications and 14 approvals. No applications for family reunification by Algerians have been accepted since the beginning of 2023.
Georgia and South Africa are now designated as “safe countries of origin” so presumably applications are not even considered. There were 31 applications from Georgians in 2023 of which just 5 were accepted, while there were 23 from South Africans of which 6 were accepted. Of course all of the approvals may not have been of applications made in the same year, but the proportions average out over the years.
One ought not assume, however, that the unsuccessful applications were refused. Oh no. For like everything else pertaining to the Sisyphean mountain of the Irish asylum system there is always another option. The figures show that outright refusals of applications for family reunification are almost unknown. Presumably this is all fodder for the massively lucrative legal appeals and review industry.
I could only find that there were 138 refusals from Somalian residents here in 2023 and 54 to date in 2024. All other applications, including another current 840 applications made by Somalians since the start of last year are still being considered or appealed or have already been accepted.