Almost a third of the asylum seekers who have applied for permission to work in Ireland under new laws have been rejected.

Since June 2018, asylum seekers have been allowed to work in Ireland provided they pass certain criteria.

The Government granted the permission after the Supreme Court ruled that laws banning them from working were unconstitutional.

Asylum Seekers can apply for the right to work once they have spent nine months in the international protection process without receiving a first-instance recommendation on their claim for asylum.

In the asylum process, the International Protection Office either accepts or rejects somebody’s application for asylum in the first instance.

If the application is rejected, asylum seekers are entitled to appeal to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal.

According to details released to Newstalk under the Freedom of Information Act, 4,412 people had applied by last month.

3,098 applications were granted, but 1,314 were turned down.

Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins said it is good to see so many asylum-seekers are looking to work when they arrive here after fleeing their home countries.

“The view among some people in society is that these people effectively are just taking form the State and are a burden on the State,” he said.

“I think this can go a long way towards dispelling that.”

The Department of Justice said around 650 people were rejected because they had already received their first-instance recommendation.

A further 300 people applied before they had been in Ireland for the required nine months.

Meanwhile, some 200 were were rejected because they were involved in the Dublin process, while 100 failed to return the required forms.

Reporting from Eoghan Murphy