Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
802. Deputy Derek Nolan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to implement the earned regulation scheme proposed by a number of undocumented migrant groups here so as to provide citizens, who are contributing significantly to this country, with a residency amnesty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14092/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am familiar with the ongoing campaign in this area but at present my Department has no plans to introduce any form of a so-called earned regularisation scheme. It remains the responsibility of all non-EEA nationals who are resident in the State to ensure that they have an appropriate permission from the Minister for Justice and Equality and the great majority of migrants comply with this condition.
If a person is undocumented his/her case can be considered on its merits by officials in the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of my Department. Such cases are presented on a regular basis. Part of this consideration involves looking at the extent to which the person's situation is through no fault of his/her own. Other relevant circumstances, particularly those of a humanitarian nature, will also be considered. Sometimes consideration of the case will result in a positive outcome for the applicant. In other cases, the decision by the Irish authorities, subject to the oversight of our Courts, would be that the person has to go home. That decision should be respected.
Broad regularisation programmes are problematic and could give rise to unpredictable and potentially very costly impacts across the full range of public and social services. 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. In our case there are also significant considerations based on maintaining the integrity of the Common Travel Area with the UK which must be taken into account.
Any significant departure from well established policies in this respect would have a major impact on the operation of the Common Travel Area both here and in the United Kingdom which is of the most fundamental importance to the economic well being of the State.
