Jonathan O'Brien
Ceist:94. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to address the issue of undocumented migrants here. [22278/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 10 May 2017
Ceisteanna (94)
Freagraí scríofa
I am on record in the House many times previously, most recently on 30 March 2017, when I said that I have no plans to introduce a general regularisation scheme for those who are currently illegally 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, particularly as there may well be significant implications for the operation of the Common Travel Area, in the context of Britain withdrawing from the European Union. Any proposal in this regard would have to be very carefully considered.
In addition, 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.
The Deputy will appreciate that, in most cases, a person becomes undocumented through their own actions by deciding not to leave the State when they no longer have a valid immigration permission. Such persons are always free to present their case, on its own merits, to the immigration authorities and it is reasonable for the State to expect that persons concerned would respect the final decision.