Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2004
430 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will consider granting residency rights to non-Irish parents with children born here who had applied for residency prior to the Supreme Court decision of January 2003. [31111/04]
View answerFollowing the Supreme Court decision in the case of L&O in January 2003, the separate procedure for considering residency applications based solely on parentage of an Irish-born child ceased on 19 February 2003. As regards outstanding claims to reside in the State on the basis of parentage of an Irish-born child, and future claims for leave to remain in the State from the non-national parents of Irish-born children, the Government decided that every such case would be examined and decided individually. A notice to this effect was published on 18 July 2003.
The amendment to the Constitution following the June referendum has allowed the Oireachtas to deal with the issue of citizenship for children of non-national parents. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill 2004 is before the House. Until that legislation is enacted and commenced, the situation on the ground will remain unchanged. Any person born in Ireland is still entitled to Irish citizenship. This continues to be an attraction to persons, with no link to Ireland, to seek to come to Ireland to acquire Irish and EU citizenship for their children. In these circumstances, it would be inappropriate for any change in procedures to be introduced in advance of the establishment of legislation as envisaged by the recent referendum. I have no plans for dealing with all cases on a collective statutory basis. Each case will be dealt with individually.
I indicated at a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights that I will in the near future make public my approach to the resolution of the issues raised in their cases. I have indicated the approach I will take will be on the basis of decency, pragmatism and common sense.
431 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will consider granting residency rights to persons who have been waiting more than two years for a decision on their asylum application. [31112/04]
View answerI do not propose to grant residency rights to persons who have been waiting more than two years for a decision on their asylum application.
I am convinced that the granting of what would effectively be an amnesty for certain asylum seekers would greatly undermine the considerable progress which has been made in respect of asylum processing arising from the Government's asylum strategy which has resulted in more speedy decisions on applications for refugee status. The continued momentum in processing timescales for asylum applications has resulted, for example, in a situation where prioritised applications receive an interview and decision at first instance within six weeks of application and timescales for considering appeals have also been reduced considerably.
Every effort continues to be made to ensure that the number of applications over six months in the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal is reduced on an ongoing basis. That our strategy in this regard is successful is evidenced by the fact that at the end of October 2004, the number of applications over six months in both these offices stood at 1,396 as compared to 6,500 at the end of September 2001.
