Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 March 2012
191 Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications he has received seeking leave to remain as a result of the Zambrano ruling; the number of decisions that have issued in such cases; the number of those that were granted leave to remain; the progress he is making on processing such applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17391/12]
View answerTo date 1,680 persons have applied to the Immigration Service of my Department (INIS) to have their case to remain in the State examined in accordance with the principles set out in the Zambrano Judgment. All of these cases require careful consideration in advance of any decision being made on whether they are comprehended by this judgment. To date, decisions have been made in 925 cases with permission to remain in the State having been granted in respect of 791 of these cases. The majority of the remaining outstanding applications are cases where all of the required documentation and information has not yet been submitted and where this is the case, the persons involved have been advised in writing as to what further documentation or information is required to be submitted.
A number of other third country nationals who already have been given permission to remain in the State, for example as students or as dependants, have also sought to have the terms of the Zambrano Judgment applied to them on the basis of being a parent of an Irish citizen child. Persons in this category are being advised to attend at their local Garda Registration Office, with certain items of documentation such as birth certificates, proof of residency etc., at which point, all other things being equal, their immigration status adjusted accordingly. These cases do not require substantive processing in my Department (primarily because the question of the person's immigration status in the State is not an issue) and, as such, they are not being recorded in a manner to calculate how many such cases are involved.
In addition there were a further body of some 193 cases subject to judicial review proceedings where a link to the Zambrano Judgment had been identified. To date 148 of these cases have been granted permission to remain in the State under the terms of the Zambrano Judgment.
