Mr. Michael Kirrane:

I am not aware of any former INIS staff member operating as an immigration consultant. I am aware of a number of retired gardaí who may have worked in the immigration area who are established in that field. We operate a policy that we do not deal directly with immigration consultants. We will take an application received but correspond directly with the applicant. We do not engage with immigration consultants. The vast majority of cases involve legal representatives and we deal with the solicitor assigned to a particular case, whether by the Legal Aid Board or privately by applicants. We do not engage directly with immigration consultants and have no plans to do so. Whether people working in this field should be regulated and who should regulate them are complex issues. Certainly, we have not looked at the issue from an immigration perspective. It is complex to consider whether one should deprive someone of his or her livelihood or how controls could be put around it.