Ms Fiona Hurley:

On a practical level, Deputy Wallace raised earlier the issue that there is no legal aid for family reunification applications. Refugees themselves may not know what the definition of dependency is. That may lead to someone applying without knowing what standard or threshold he or she must meet. If someone has access to a practitioner or comes to an organisation like the Irish Refugee Council or to Nasc Ireland, he or she can get that advice.

One issues that arises widely with the Department of Justice and Equality is that it is reluctant to put in place detailed policy or information as to what it is actually looking for. It is up to the applicant to bring information and at that stage a decision is made. That could go hand in hand with the Department being more transparent about what it would consider dependency to be. That would resolve a lot of the issues and help people to access family reunification in a better manner.