Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 January 2013
734. Deputy Eamonn Maloney asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of outstanding applications for leave to remain from 1 January 2008 that are pending a decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57809/12]
View answerIn the interests of clarity, what is referred to as 'an application for leave to remain' refers to the submission of written representations to the Minister for Justice and Equality 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 final decision is made, consideration is given to the eleven separate headings set out in Section 3 (6) of the 1999 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. Such decision making is also guided by, among other things, international law and Supreme and High Court judgments. This process is followed in asylum related cases and in the cases of illegal immigrants. The ultimate decision will be to make a Deportation Order or to grant Leave to Remain in the State for a specified period and subject to stated conditions.
Before a third country national can apply for leave to remain, he or she must be served with a notification of intention to deport, as provided for under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended). In this connection, in the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (to the end of November) a total of 3,185, 5,037, 4,326, 2,471 and 1,991 notifications of intention to deport were issued by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS). Arising from the decision-making process described in the foregoing, many of these cases have been finalised through the granting of subsidiary protection, the granting of permission to remain under different headings (including under EU treaty rights, through marriage to an Irish national or under family reunification provisions), the making of deportation orders and the voluntary repatriation, formally and informally, of many of the persons involved. Other cases cannot be finalised owing to the existence of judicial review proceedings while a further cohort of cases will clearly remain to be decided. Precise figures for each of these categories are not available for each of the years in question without engaging in a very detailed exercise which would not be justified as it would divert resources from case processing which obviously is a higher priority.
The Deputy should note that the processing of cases at the repatriation stage is a complex one with obligations to adhere to both domestic and international laws and jurisprudence and to make decisions in accordance with the UN Convention on Human Rights. However, I am anxious that all cases are processed as quickly as possible and, to this end, additional staff members have been deployed to this area of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service in recent years and substantial investment has been made in the development of technology required to support the processing of such cases. Additionally, the current multi-layered approach to the processing of cases of asylum origin is clearly not resource efficient nor applicant friendly and that is why I am providing for a single-procedure-based approach in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, which I plan to progress in 2013. This proposed single-procedure will require applicants to advance, at the outset, all reasons, protection or otherwise, behind their request to remain in the State. As a result, the days of the multi-layered approach to dealing with such cases will cease.
Finally, I might add that I recently approved an initiative to put in place a panel with legal expertise who will assist the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service in processing a cohort of repatriation cases, thus speeding up the overall process and reducing the time spent by persons in the direct provision system. I would expect to see significant dividends, in terms of cases finalised, from this initiative in the coming months.
