Ruth Coppinger
Question:47. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will regularise the position of undocumented migrants here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7684/17]
View answerThursday, 16 February 2017
Questions (47, 58)
Maureen O'Sullivan
Question:58. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Leaders' Questions on 9 February 2017, if she will address the problems relating to the immigration status of those young persons not in direct provision who, due to the lack of regularisation, cannot proceed to third level, employment or access social services, many of whom have been through second level education. [7645/17]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 47 and 58 together.
I am on record in the House previously, most recently in June 2016, as saying that I have no plans to introduce a general regularisation scheme for those who are currently undocumented in the State. Any such proposal could give rise to very large, unpredictable and potentially very costly impacts across the full range of public and social services. Furthermore, there may well be significant implications for the operation of the Common Travel Area, particularly, in the context of Britain withdrawing from the European Union. Any proposal in this regard would have to be very carefully considered.
At the European level, Ireland together with the other Member States of the European Union has committed under the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum agreed at the European Council in October 2008 "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.
It should be remembered that people usually become undocumented through their own conscious actions or omissions. It is always open to persons in an undocumented situation to present their case, or that of their children, on its individual merits to the immigration authorities. Such cases would be carefully considered before a decision is made and it is reasonable for the State to expect that the affected persons would respect that decision.