Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 September 2012
327. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide an update on any action that he is taking to introduce a regularisation scheme for undocumented migrants living here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40572/12]
View answerI have no plans for any general scheme to legalise the residency of undocumented and illegally present foreign nationals in this State. It is the responsibility of all non-EEA nationals who are resident in Ireland to ensure that they have an appropriate permission from the Minister for Justice and Equality. Individuals who do not have a permission to be in the State are liable to be subject to the deportation process as provided for in Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999.
I am of course aware that there have been proposals of this nature from sources outside of Government. However, great caution should be exercised before embarking on such a project. A proposal of this nature could give rise to very large, unpredictable and potentially very costly impacts across the full range of public and social services. Any possible implication for the operation of the Common Travel Area would also have to be very carefully considered.
At EU Level, the Member States, in agreeing the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum at the European Council in October 2008 made specific commitments "to use only case-by-case regularisation, rather than generalised regularisation, under national law, for humanitarian or economic reasons". While the Pact is not legally binding, the political commitment among Member States, then and now, is clearly against any form of process that would in any way legitimise the status of those unlawfully present without first examining the merits of their individual cases.
The circumstances of individual cases can vary considerably and it is logical that the outcomes will not always be the same. At one end of the spectrum are those whose illegal status is genuinely through no fault of their own while at the other can be found a flagrant disregard of the laws of the Irish State and an unwillingness to accept that those laws, under which tens of thousands of lawful migrants have made Ireland their home, must also apply to them. It is open to persons in an undocumented situation to present their case on its merits and to have it considered.
