Ms Claire Cumiskey:

The current regularisation of undocumented migrant workers is ad hocand discretionary. This is the first time we have seen a policy introduced to have a scheme to re-activate these types of permissions. When one is working on these types of cases, one is working at the discretion of two Departments, namely, INIS, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, in the Department of Justice and Equality, and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. I cannot give the specific number of re-activations granted. Those figures are not published and we have to ask for them.
Over the past five years, we have assisted 25 migrants who were previously in the State on a work permit, became undocumented and wanted to get back into the system. They needed an employment permit to do that. To do this, one must make an application to INIS for an immigration permission because one cannot apply for a work permit from within the State without this permission. This step to get a decision on a temporary permission could take up to three to four months. Then one must submit an application to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for the actual work permit. This is a two-tiered approach but with this legislation it is essential both Departments will work together on this in a meaningful way.