Ms Edel McGinley:

We will take a few of the questions together.

Mr. Rojas Coppari has explained that access to services is related to the situation of one's parents. Ireland is very good at providing access to primary and secondary school. Children of undocumented parents do not have problems accessing school. Outcomes are different because if their parents are in low-paid jobs, there are poverty issues. They might also be living in small and cramped accommodation. Therefore, outcomes, as opposed to access, are also important to consider.

As an organisation, we have a child protection policy in place. If issues of child protection come to our attention, we will report them to Tusla's social work department. We do not see the fact of being undocumented in itself as a child protection issue. Child protection arises when there is abuse or some other such issue, which we would pursue. This does not prohibit social workers or anybody else from acting in the best interests of the child in these cases. Neither is this something we come across hugely in our work dealing with this group of people. A minimal number of child protection issues come through to our services. However, we have a duty of care and we would report any such issues and go through the proper channels if we had concerns in this regard.

Deputy O'Sullivan asked what we can do. I will conclude on this critical issue. Some undocumented children have been here a long time, and we need to do something. Regarding peaks and troughs, we needed workers during the Celtic tiger era. Our immigration system was not fit for purpose. We developed policy and immigration legislation in an ad hocand piecemeal way that could not respond to the demand of the labour market, so we saw many people come here to take up employment. The key drivers of irregular migration are employment and family ties. If there is no work in a country, people do not go there. When people do come to a country, they set down roots and want their families to join them. We must clean up the system. This is a residue of a broken system from a long time ago.

To respond to Deputy Chambers, we need to put in place on an ongoing basis what we will need in the future. What we have proposed is a bare minimum. If we want to do something proper for children in an ongoing way, we need a mechanism in our immigration system that allows children born to undocumented people in the State to regularise their situations on an ongoing basis. The committee should consider how this might be done and what it might look like. We can refer back to the committee with recommendations in this regard.