asked the Minister for Justice if he will state the number of residence permits which have been granted to aliens in each of the years from 1951 to 1956.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Residence Permits.
9.
I regret that the figures sought are not available. The most informative of the available figures that I could give the Deputy are the figures showing the number of registered aliens at the end of each year. These figures, for each year from 1951 to 1958 inclusive, are, respectively: 2,647, 2,727, 2,744, 2,682, 2,665, 2,926, 2,824, 3,028.
I have included the years 1957 and 1958 because the Deputy asked a question about these years last week. In my reply to that question, I gave, as the most informative of the available figures, the number of aliens who registered in each of these years and who are still on the register. Corresponding figures for earlier years would, however, be very misleading in the context of the question asked, since many aliens who registered in these earlier years have left the country or become naturalized.