Mr. Noel Waters:

I share the Deputy's concerns. It is a difficulty and we are not alone in that respect. All Administrations have such difficulties. From our Department's view, the staff work very hard to try to identify, as quickly as possible, the people who are in need of protection among the large number of people. They try to get them through the system, get them to the far side of it as quickly as possible, move them towards having proper and appropriate lives in the community, and support them as best they can, with all the measures. That clearly has to be the focus. I agree that people who do make applications and use the system for the reasons Deputy Deasy described are a difficulty.

The Government has agreed to take in 4,000 people as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. That is an entirely different situation. While they will be subject to the new process we are talking about, the sense is that perhaps 75% or 80%, or perhaps even more of them, will qualify automatically because they are clearly coming from Syria and the region where refugees are being generated. Therefore, there is no reason they cannot go through the system very quickly. In every sense of the word, they will be the people who deserve our hospitality.

On the question of the Acting Chairman on what happens people who do not qualify, a much misunderstood part of our system is that when a person has been through the entire process, he is ultimately invited to make an application declaring why he should remain in the State on humanitarian grounds and to put forward a case. This, again, will be gone in the new system. If the case is not accepted by the Minister or, in most cases, officials working on the Minister's behalf, a deportation order is then signed. The order states the applicant must leave the country. The onus is on the individual to leave the country on foot of the deportation order and not on the State to remove the person forcibly from the country; it is an important distinction. Some people do leave the country. By definition, it is very difficult to say how many would at any given time because of the nature of immigrant communities and given the free travel arrangement between Ireland and the United Kingdom. Some people do leave voluntarily but many people do not. If they do not, the Garda is faced with a very difficult task - not a decision - along with our staff of forcibly removing them. That is a very unpleasant duty for everybody to have to do. It would not be our wish to do it but, in order to maintain the integrity of any immigration system, one has to have forcible deportations where warranted.