Calendar year. The average length of time in days taken from date of application for international protection to issue of Minister’s final decision was 985 days, with an average number of days spent in MDU of 75 days.<br />For clarity in relation to the average length of time it took for decisions issued in 2019 from application date to decision date the following are contributing factors;<br />- Not all decisions issued in 2019 were application made in 2019.<br />- The International Protection Act, 2015 became operational in January 2016. All cases that had not been decided by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, (now the International Protection Appeals Tribunal) were returned to the IPO for Subsidiary Protection consideration before either returning to IPAT to continue an appeal(s) or final decision issued by the Ministerial Decisions Unit. <br />- The Ministerial Decisions Unit processes recommendations received from the International Protection Office and decisions of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal in chronological order based on the date the file is received in the Unit. Once the necessary due diligence has been carried out by the Ministerial Decisions Unit in relation to all grants, a Ministerial Declaration of status will issue as soon as possible. Refusals are issued as soon as possible following receipt of file where possible.<br />As the decision process generally takes over 12 months, Ireland presumes they will remain for at least 12 months. Ireland therefore counts 12 months of support for each individual.