The principal manner by which those who have been granted refugee status by the State can seek family reunification is provided for in the International Protection Act 2015. Specifically, sections 56 and 57 provides for reunification where the family member is as defined in section 56(9) of that Act.
In addition, earlier this year I announced a new scheme for family reunification – the Irish Humanitarian Admissions Programme 2 (IHAP). The IHAP is a humanitarian admissions programme which gives persons granted international protection status in the State, and Irish citizens, the opportunity to apply to bring family members who are nationals of one of the top ten major countries of refugees, as listed in the UNHCR Annual Global Trends report, to this State. The first IHAP call for proposals closed on 30th June 2018 and I recently announced a second window for receipt of proposals from 20th December, 2018 until 8th February.
The policy document referred to by the Deputy is a general policy to cover the broad range of persons legally in the State who wishes to apply for their family members to join them. I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that, as the criteria for qualification under the policy does not consider the original basis by which the sponsor came to have permission to be in the State, statistics in the manner requested by the Deputy are not collected in such a way that enables the data requested to be provided.
