Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 December 2017
115. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of asylum and immigration cases who are being held up or are pending approval while awaiting the judgment of an appeal to the Supreme Court of the Court of Appeal judgment in a case (details supplied); and the status of those persons awaiting decisions dependent on that appeal. [51752/17]
View answerI am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that persons seeking permission to remain in the State may do so for a number of reasons to various Divisions of the INIS under both statutory and non-statutory provisions. As a result, as the Deputy would expect, every case is considered on its own merits in conjunction with the legislation, criteria or guidelines which are directly applicable to the individual case type.
The issues raised in the court case referred to by the Deputy, which is currently before the Supreme Court, has the potential to generate further sets of legal proceedings and, as such, the INIS deemed it prudent to postpone decision making in certain immigration cases until the matters before the Courts have been finalised.
It is not possible to quantify the precise numbers of such cases as to do so would require the deployment of a disproportionate level of limited resources to the task. However, the Deputy may wish to be aware that the case referred to was heard before the Supreme Court last Thursday (30th November, 2017) and is due to return to that Court early in the new year.
