In the interests of clarity, the Deputy might wish to note that there is no such thing as an ‘application for leave to remain' but what has become known as ‘an application for leave to remain' is the submission of written representations to the Minister against the making of a Deportation Order, pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended). In all such cases, before a decision is made by the Minister, consideration is given to the eleven separate headings set out in Section 3(6) of that Act, the provisions of Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended) on the prohibition of refoulement and other relevant legal and constitutional provisions. The ultimate decision of the Minister is to make a Deportation Order or to grant Leave to Remain in the State.
At 31 December 2009, 12,076 cases were recorded as awaiting a decision of this nature. However, this figure includes the approx. 3,000 cases where applications for Subsidiary Protection in the State have been submitted by the same persons. Where an application for Subsidiary Protection in the State has been submitted in addition to representations against the making of a Deportation Order, the Subsidiary Protection application must first be considered.
Indications are that many of those whose cases are recorded as awaiting a decision under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) may already have left the State without notifying my Department of their having done so.
The Deputy will appreciate that the consideration of cases under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) is a resource intensive process. It is not, however, possible to provide an average waiting time for the processing of such cases primarily because no two cases will be the same in terms of their nature or complexity. However, the Deputy can be assured that strenuous efforts have been made and continue to be made to ensure that such cases are processed to finality as promptly as possible. To this end, additional staff members have been deployed to the area and investment has been made in the development of technology required to support the processing of such cases. The accompanying table sets out the other statistical information requested by the Deputy.
Section 3 based statistics for 2009
Category
|
Total
|
New Section 3 cases*
|
4,924
|
Section 3 cases decided where Leave to Remain was granted
|
659
|
Section 3 cases decided where a Deportation Order was made
|
1,077
|
*New Section 3 cases are deemed to be those where persons were issued with a notification of intention to deport following the rejection of their asylum claims or where they became otherwise illegal in the State e.g. arising from the expiry of a Work Permit or a Work or Study Visa.