Ms Fiona Finn:

I thank everyone for the opportunity to come here this morning. My name is Fiona Finn and I am the chief executive officer of NASC. I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms Jennifer DeWan.

NASC is the Irish word for link. NASC is an NGO based in Cork. Since 2000 NASC has worked to link migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities with their rights.

One of the key issues that NASC works on is family reunification. Over the past 16 years NASC has worked with thousands of migrants who sought to bring their family members to Ireland. In the past two years we have helped reunite 137 families, some of which were refugee families. Some of the families fled war, conflict and persecution. As a result, we have a huge amount of expertise in this area. We have a strong knowledge of the issues and barriers people must face when seeking to bring family members to Ireland.

As everyone will know, one of the largest humanitarian crisis is taking place since the Second World War. Our thinking and approach to the problem is that family reunification can form part of Ireland's solution and answer to the crisis. We have all seen the horrific images on our television screens. We have seen images of people in rickety boats desperately trying to reach the safety of Europe's shores. We have also seen families, women and children located on the borders of Europe, living in makeshift tents, freezing and starving while waiting for Europe to do something to protect them. We have seen countless images of drowned, injured and starving children. We have been horrified by the images and rightly so. It is testament to our humanity, goodness and belief that we believe we can make a difference. It is a tribute to who we are and to the Ireland that our ancestors fought to make a reality a century ago.

The migrant crisis seems enormous to everybody. People are left feeling helpless and they do not know where to start. The Government has offered to bring 4,000 people here under a resettlement and relocation programme, which is a positive step. Recently agreement was reached to bring 200 children from Calais to Ireland, which is highly commendable.

From our experience of working with refugees and people already settled in Ireland, we know such measures are not enough. Every day Syrians and naturalised citizens who live in Ireland can see what is happening in their countries on a screen. They have seen images of their homeland lying in ruins. They have families living in the region. Some of them have immediate family members there while others have extended family members there. Their parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews and nieces are fighting for survival and their families here are desperate to bring them here to safety. The families here have told us that they can support, provide for, house and look after their people and all they need is an opportunity to bring their family members here. We have worked with families with some degree of success. From our experience of the system for non-refugee family reunification, we believe there has been a failure on behalf of the Government to exercise what we call positive discretion.

Matters are remarkably difficult, for example, for Syrians who are naturalised Irish citizens living here and looking to bring in elderly parents. It is becoming extraordinarily difficult for them to do that. I will set out an example involving one gentleman. He is a professional and a naturalised Irish citizen. He earned the requisite amount of money, that is, €70,000 per year, required to bring his elderly parents to Ireland. He was refused because both his parents suffer from a degenerative disease. The view was that the area where the family was living was relatively unscathed by the war. This is the response Irish citizens are getting from the Department. They are rather disillusioned and it seems to them that Ireland is not supporting them as it should.

Under immigration provisions, an element of discretion can be exercised. However, our experience is that this discretion is not being exercised at present. This is a critical moment for us in that the International Protection Act is about to come into force. This Act removes the right for refugees to apply for extended family members to come to Ireland. Once the International Protection Act comes into place, refugees in Ireland can only apply for spouses and children under the age of 18 years. There is no way they can apply for parents, siblings or any other family members. That door will be permanently shut within the coming weeks.

We are looking for a safety net. A safety net is required. We have a pragmatic and practical solution to provide a humanitarian safety net to bring families together in a safe and legal way. We are removing the need for people's families to make dangerous land and sea crossings and we are seeking to stop the traffickers who are profiting from this human misery. This provides us with an opportunity to support Irish communities and to finally do something practical for those fleeing conflict. We are asking for sponsorship for family reunification applications. We are calling on the Government to grant safe passage to reunite families by way of three simple measures. The first is to introduce a humanitarian admission programme. Such a programme was in place in 2014 and it was specifically tailored for Syrians. Our idea is for the Government to look at the programme that was developed in 2014 and build on it. We are asking it to consider a greater humanitarian response in its decision-making for non-refugee family reunification applications. We are also asking the Government for the introduction of a sponsorship scheme to allow Irish people who are willing and able to sponsor applicants to do so. Irish people have come to us and said that they want to be able to sponsor families to come to Ireland. The idea is to develop a clear sponsorship scheme to enable Irish people to support Syrians who are living in Syria and the surrounding territories to come to Ireland. We are seeking something along the lines of the Canadian and German programmes.

Given the current global climate, including the rise of extremism and of the right, we have to take every opportunity to do what is right, not simply what is politically expedient. We are calling on the State not to react with passion or ad hocsolutions. There is a requirement for us to act positively and decisively to deliver stable, sustainable and durable solutions. We need to deliver actions that will mark Ireland out as a leader in championing inclusion when all about us want exclusion, tolerance when people want hatred and human rights when people want authoritarianism. This is our chance to do something. It would be a small measure and no great burden on the public purse. This is our opportunity to do something to bring families together, in safety, out of the current conflict, not only now but in future.

We are open to answering any questions.