A growing rise in the number of asylum seekers arriving here is exacerbating problems at direct provision centres around the country.

The number of applicants in 2014 is expected to reach 1,400 by the end of the year - a significant jump from last year's total of 950.

This represents an increase of 47pc and it has remained on an upward trend throughout the year.

The surge is putting additional pressure on the Government to speed up new legislation to help end the current logjam in asylum procedures.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has promised that a bill aimed at introducing a single application procedure will be drafted and enacted by the spring.

The plan is to dramatically cut the time spent in direct provision and some applicants will have decisions in weeks and the rest within six months.

At the moment, a total of 4,500 asylum seekers are being housed and fed at 24 direct provision centres nationwide and some have been there for seven years.

They are given a weekly allowance but are not permitted to work while awaiting a decision on their asylum status.

Some 800 deportation orders have been signed by ministers for justice but implementation of the orders has slowed down.

Logjam

Many of the decisions have been held up by a logjam in a complicated appeals process, which regularly involves judicial reviews in the courts.

Successive ministers have tried to streamline the process without success.

However, Mrs Fitzgerald is paving the way for a hoped-for breakthrough with the planned legislation by setting up a working group, led by herself and Junior Minister Aodhan O Riordain to review the direct provision system and suggest improvements.

Despite complaints about conditions in the centres used to hold the asylum seekers, the numbers have been rising for the first time in several years.

Last September, the Irish Independent revealed a 40pc increase in applications for the first eight months of the year, compared to the corresponding period in 2013, up from 607 to 854. The increase this year may have been influenced by comments made by some government politicians that asylum seekers should be given permission to work.

Pakistan tops the table of asylum seekers, followed by Nigeria with Albania in third.

Irish Independent