Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 January 2010
598 Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average waiting time to process renewal of temporary leave to remain in the State under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999, as amended; the number of applications awaiting a decision; the number received, approved and rejected in 2009; the steps he is taking to speed up the processing time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1555/10]
View answerPersons granted Leave to Remain in the State under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) are required to apply to the Minister for the renewal of such permission before the period of permission expires.
All applications for renewal of Leave to Remain have to be considered on their individual merits in order to ascertain whether the persons in question have complied with the conditions attaching to their Leave to Remain. This, of necessity, requires checks to be made with other State entities. The average waiting time for the processing of such applications is one to three months.
The Deputy might wish to note that statistical data is not available for the renewal of Leave to Remain in the State, because this information cannot be disaggregated from the original grant of leave to remain.
The Deputy might also wish to note that such applications are generally approved save in circumstances where the applicant has been involved in criminality or where evidence is available that the applicant was granted Leave to Remain in the State on the basis of false or misleading information.
599 Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average waiting time to process applications for temporary leave to remain in the State under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999, as amended; the number of applications awaiting a decision; the number received, approved and rejected in 2009; the steps he is taking to speed up the processing time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1556/10]
View answerIn 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.
|
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.
600 Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average waiting time to process renewal of temporary leave to remain in the State under the Irish born child 2005 scheme; the number of applications awaiting a decision; the number received, approved and rejected in 2009; the steps he is taking to speed up the processing time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1557/10]
View answerI wish to inform the Deputy that persons granted permission to remain in the State under the IBC/05 Scheme were, subject to a renewal application having been received and approved, granted a further three year extension of their permission to remain, in 2007. Therefore, as such persons were granted permission to remain until 2010, the issue of renewal did not arise in 2009.
Furthermore, I wish to advise the Deputy that renewal applications received in 2007 were, in general, processed within two weeks of a completed application form for renewal, accompanied by adequate supporting documentation, being received in my Department. I should add that the closing date for receipt of applications under the IBC/05 Scheme was 31 March, 2005. Since the termination of the Scheme, there is no free-standing right of any person to apply for permission to remain in the State on the sole basis of parentage of a child born in Ireland.
