Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
6/7 Hanover Street East, Dublin 2, D02 W320, Ireland
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
27 March 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
27 March 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
27 March 2025
3.1. Data description
Data collection on Dublin statistics contains statistical information based on the Article 4.4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Incoming ‘Dublin’ requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RO);
Incoming ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (REDACI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (REDACO);
Pending ‘Dublin’ incoming requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, sex and type of applicant (RPENI);
Pending ‘Dublin’ outgoing requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, sex and type of applicant (RPENO);
Incoming ‘Dublin’ requests for information by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RINFI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests for information by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RINFO);
Incoming responses to ‘Dublin’ requests for information by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of response, sex and type of applicant (RESI);
Outgoing responses to ‘Dublin’ requests for information by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of response, sex and type of applicant (RESO);
Unilateral ‘Dublin’ decisions by partner country, type of decision, sex and type of applicant (DUNI);
Decisions on incoming ‘Dublin’ requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DI);
Decisions on outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DO);
Decisions on incoming ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by submitting country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DEDACI);
Decisions on outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by receiving country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DEDACO);
Incoming ‘Dublin’ transfers by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of transfer, sex and type of applicant (TI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ transfers by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of transfer, sex and type of applicant (TO);
Pending incoming ‘Dublin’ transfers by submitting country (PARTNER), sex and type of applicant (TPENI);
Pending outgoing ‘Dublin’ transfers by receiving country (PARTNER), sex and type of applicant (TPENO).
3.2. Classification system
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Dublin statistics.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
3.5. Statistical unit
The text of Art.4 of the Statistics Regulation (asylum statistics) refers in general to statistics based on the number of persons and not on the number of applications. However, the respective Article dealing with Dublin statistics (Art.4.4) refers to statistics based on the number of requests. Commission services recommend that Art.4.4 (more precisely 4.4.a, 4.4.c and 4.4.d) is interpreted as referring to the number of persons concerned by each request, decision and transfer.
3.6. Statistical population
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
3.7. Reference area
Ireland.
3.8. Coverage - Time
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of requests, number of decisions, number of transfers.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The compilation of Dublin statistics is based on Article 4.4 of Regulation (EC) 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 and its amending Regulation (EU) 2020/851 of 18 June 2020. The legal acts detail the data provisions Member States are obliged to supply to Eurostat.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
There is no national policy. However, no personal data or data which could lead to identification of an individual is ever released.
From 25 May 2018 the key legislative frameworks are:
Statistics are based entirely on administrative sources.
Procedure manuals and process maps are compiled for each dataset and table.
Before publishing the data, consistent validation checks are performed.
Revisions are carried out as issues are encountered or identified.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Data is considered of high quality.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Administrative data is collected for service delivery purposes.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not Applicable.
12.3. Completeness
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Data is considered highly accurate. Any errors are revised when they are encountered or identified.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3. Non-sampling error
See below.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable: data is not based on samples.
13.3.4. Processing error
Possible errors due to data entry errors.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Data published on the Irish government website has a lag of approximately seven days from end of month.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Data is submitted to Eurostat by the due data.
Data published on the Irish government website has a lag approximately seven days from end of the month.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data is collected at a national level so is geographically comparable across all of the country.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable - data is all collected from the same source.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
There can be minor variations between monthly, quarterly and annual data due to backdating, fixing of data entry errors, suppression of low numbers. These are usually caught and rectified.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Data all come from the one database. In this sense, they are all internally coherent.
The types of statistics required under the regulation are also needed for national purposes, such as for the management of the national system for processing Dublin cases or for the monitoring of border control policies. In almost all cases, the data used to produce the statistics are based on existing administrative and statistical systems.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There is currently no formalised revision policy for these statistics. Revisions are done as soon as errors are discovered.
17.2. Data revision - practice
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
<1%
18.1. Source data
The data is administrative data that is collected by the Department of Justice in Ireland as part of it's service delivery process.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data is entered into IT systems daily as collected.
18.3. Data collection
Data are compiled from administrative records. Data is collected in the course of service delivery.
18.4. Data validation
Data is checked on a monthly basis. If any anomalies are spotted e.g. missing data, then this is fed back to the data coordination team for investigation.
Data collection on Dublin statistics contains statistical information based on the Article 4.4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Incoming ‘Dublin’ requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RO);
Incoming ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (REDACI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (REDACO);
Pending ‘Dublin’ incoming requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, sex and type of applicant (RPENI);
Pending ‘Dublin’ outgoing requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, sex and type of applicant (RPENO);
Incoming ‘Dublin’ requests for information by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RINFI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests for information by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, sex and type of applicant (RINFO);
Incoming responses to ‘Dublin’ requests for information by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of response, sex and type of applicant (RESI);
Outgoing responses to ‘Dublin’ requests for information by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of response, sex and type of applicant (RESO);
Unilateral ‘Dublin’ decisions by partner country, type of decision, sex and type of applicant (DUNI);
Decisions on incoming ‘Dublin’ requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DI);
Decisions on outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DO);
Decisions on incoming ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by submitting country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DEDACI);
Decisions on outgoing ‘Dublin’ requests based on EURODAC by receiving country (PARTNER), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant (DEDACO);
Incoming ‘Dublin’ transfers by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of transfer, sex and type of applicant (TI);
Outgoing ‘Dublin’ transfers by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of transfer, sex and type of applicant (TO);
Pending incoming ‘Dublin’ transfers by submitting country (PARTNER), sex and type of applicant (TPENI);
Pending outgoing ‘Dublin’ transfers by receiving country (PARTNER), sex and type of applicant (TPENO).
27 March 2025
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
The text of Art.4 of the Statistics Regulation (asylum statistics) refers in general to statistics based on the number of persons and not on the number of applications. However, the respective Article dealing with Dublin statistics (Art.4.4) refers to statistics based on the number of requests. Commission services recommend that Art.4.4 (more precisely 4.4.a, 4.4.c and 4.4.d) is interpreted as referring to the number of persons concerned by each request, decision and transfer.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
Ireland.
Calendar year.
Data is considered highly accurate. Any errors are revised when they are encountered or identified.
Number of requests, number of decisions, number of transfers.
Not Applicable.
The data is administrative data that is collected by the Department of Justice in Ireland as part of it's service delivery process.
Dublin Statistics are published once a year by Eurostat and monthly on the Irish government open data website.
Data published on the Irish government website has a lag of approximately seven days from end of month.
Data is collected at a national level so is geographically comparable across all of the country.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Dublin 2024’.
