Ms Áine Ní Chonaill:

The Deputy has mentioned his Bill. I am glad he did because I consider it extraordinary that the MRCI, which is the advocate par excellencefor regularisation, did not consider that it should go further - in reasonableness, apparently - than asking for people to be regularised who had been here four years. The Deputy, in his excess of zeal to rebrand his party, has decided to bring forward a Bill which provides that if they are here for a mere two years they are to be regularised. May it bring the Deputy joy.

On the second matter of deportations, the Deputy said one cannot do nothing, and asked what does one do. We have already said that a level of deportation proportionate to that in the UK would have us deporting 3,500 people per year. If one deported 3,000 or 4,000 for the next few years, one would soon arrive at 20,000. One will never deport all illegals. One deports as many illegals as one can detect. There is not a Government in the world that would be able to hold its head up and say there is not an illegal in its territory. On the issue of what we can do about illegal immigration, an illegal immigrant cannot live on fresh air. As we all agree, they are mostly in jobs. That means somebody is employing an illegal. That is an offence according to our work permit law, but one never hears of anybody being charged with hiring an illegal, as far as I am aware. We made a suggestion to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, which has not been taken up, that it mirror an action taken by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, which apparently has been successful. On the Department of Social Protection website there is a facility to report people whom one suspects of being engaged in social welfare fraud. It can be done anonymously, and I understand it has been a successful operation. We suggested to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation that it put on its site a similar facility to report people suspected of working illegally. That would be an enormous help, because detection takes time, resources and manpower. I should mention also, if I may, that there is a problem with the National Employment Rights Authority. When I say that, I mean-----