FEW people realise the scale of the increase in the number of refugees seeking asylum in Ireland in the past three years. In the first eight months of this year 666 people sought asylum in Ireland, an average of more than 83 per month.

This compared with 31 in 1991; 39 for 1992; 91 for 1993; 355 for 1994, with over 209 of these coming from Cuba into Shannon airport; and 424 last year.

These figures do not include the 560 Vietnamese refugees and family members who arrived in the years after 1979, most of them now naturalised Irish citizens; nor more than 600 Bosnians who have arrived as part of a government assisted programme in recent years.

There are now well over a thousand refugees from nearly 60 countries living in a kind of legal limbo in the State while waiting for the Department of Justice to decide on their applications.

They are living in Red Cross and youth hostels, temporary flats, bed and breakfast accommodation, and sometimes hostels for homeless people. They are not allowed to work and must eke out a living from supplementary welfare and rent allowances. Most are in the greater Dublin and Shannon Ennis regions, which are the two principal entry points for refugees.

Only a tiny proportion have been either recognised by the State as refugees, and thus received all the rights and benefits accorded to refugees under the 1951 Geneva Convention, or have been given discretionary "humanitarian leave to remain by the Minister for Justice. So far this year only 17 people have been granted refugee status and five more given leave to remain in 1995 the respective figures were 14 and eight people.

The main problem is that the small number of officials dealing with asylum applications in the Department of Justice have been overwhelmed by the increase in the number of asylum seekers since 1994.

WHAT appears to have happened is that Ireland has, for the first time become known as a possible refugee destination, particularly among the agents who, for a price, often organise their flight from countries in Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet empire.

In the past Ireland would have been thought of in many of these countries as indistinguishable from the UK. However, as British rules governing the admittance of refugees became harsher in the 1990s, and Ireland's profile in the world rose - due to factors such as the spread of Irish aid workers, the IRA ceasefire and the Irish soccer team's performances in the World Cup - this country started to be mentioned on the international refugee grapevine as a safe place for people fleeing civil war and political persecution.

In recent years the single country from which most asylum seekers have arrived is Romania, many of them economic refugees. Other large groups have come from countries torn apart by civil war such as Somalia and Algeria; from Zaire, with its despotic government and strong Catholic presence; and the countries of the former Soviet Union, with their multiple problems of civil strife and economic dislocation.

The majority of asylum seekers since 1994 have been allowed to stay in the country pending a decision on their applications. This has been an extremely slow process.

Until now, the legal basis for adjudication has been a tenuous one, which has become less tenuous because it has been endorsed by a number of court rulings. It consists of a 1985 letter from the Department of Justice to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) outlining its commitment to the 1951 Geneva Convention.

An application for asylum at present involves an initial two to three month delay, followed by an interview with the Department of Justice. The application is then sent to the UNHCR's London office and to the Department of Foreign Affairs for their opinions which are used to make a recommendation to the Minister for Justice. It is little wonder that the average processing time is 2 1/2 years.

The process has not been helped by further delays caused by an ongoing High Court case on the right of an asylum seeker to get legal representation - and legal aid - for an appeal against refusal of refugee status.

MEANWHILE, the Irish Refugee Council, founded only four years ago, is the first stop for a near overwhelming stream of refugees at their offices in Dublin and Ennis. The great bulk of their £250,000 annual budget is accounted for by a FAS employment scheme, which funds 18 of their 24 full and part time workers. Unlike their counterparts in other European countries, they receive no funding from the Department of Justice.

The problems they have to deal with are multifarious; language and education difficulties; problems in finding accommodation, sometimes in the face of hostile landlords; racist incidents against refugees; psychological problems caused by war, imprisonment and torture; the needs of women and children; and the huge psychological stress and anguish caused by the disappearance and scattering of family members.

During, the last three, years more refugees to Ireland have been whole families, women and children. "The psychological stress on people waiting to hear sometimes for years whether they can stay is terrible," said Ms Deirdre Clancy, the council's legal officer. "They can't even go out and work to take their minds off things."

The Refugee Council expects the situation to improve greatly once the 1996 Refugee Act comes into effect. It is full of praise for this legislation, saying it will "place Ireland in the forefront of progressive international law on asylum".

It particularly welcomes the extension of the definition of a refugee to include members of groups who have been persecuted because of their gender, sexual orientation or trade union membership.

While expressing some concern about procedures for dealing with refugees who arrive via other EU countries and still to be announced legal aid provisions, it commends the Act's "generous and flexible" definition of what constitutes a family for the purposes of family reunion for refugees.

"The Refugee Act will make an enormous difference when it comes into operation early next year, says the Minister of State for Justice, Ms Joan Burton, who has been largely responsible for drawing it up.

"It will provide a staffed, dedicated agency with a commissioner to examine cases, make initial decisions plus quick decisions in clear cases, and an appeal board. I have been working personally on hundreds of files trying to clear the backlog. The new structures will see a considerable speeding up of the time taken to process asylum applications, and for the first time everything will be done in Ireland."