Mr. Ted Neville:

In their presentation to the committee on 25 February the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, MRCI, claimed that their proposed scheme of regularisation would result in a fiscal gain to the State of €185 million during a five year period, or €37 million per annum.

They failed to take account however of the fact that each illegal immigrant in a job displaces an Irish citizen or a legal immigrant who should be in that job. If we take even the lowest estimate of the MRCI figure, that gives us a figure of 17,400 illegals in jobs which should be held by people who are instead on jobseeker's allowance. The costs to the State of jobseeker's allowance for that number of people is over €170 million per annum. For clarity the figures round to just under €10,000 per annum multiplied by 17,000 giving the figure of €170 million per annum. To put it another way, deporting an illegal immigrant, at the most recent figures we have, costs approximately €3,500. In light of the figures just mentioned, the €3,500 would be recouped from a mere four months of savings of jobseeker's allowance for persons who are consigned to that situation. In our view, these figures show the massive monetary harm done to Irish workers and to the State by illegal immigrants. The committee might be interested in the text of an e-mail received by the Immigration Control Platform on Friday, 31 October 2014.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Where is the best place to report illegal immigrants who work in Ireland? My wife is about to lose her job to an undocumented Chinese girl. I must stress that my wife is also Chinese but is married to myself, an Irish national, and she has worked here paying tax for the last ten years. She is being let go as she is here legally.

ICP has not even touched on the further harm which is caused by the downward pressure on wages occasioned by the employment of illegal immigrants. The Department of Justice and Equality has worked very reasonably with the Migrant Rights Council of Ireland, MRCI, in dealing with people who were no longer legally present through no fault of their own, when they had perhaps been assured by their employers that their work permit had been renewed and then found that it had not. The reactivation scheme was set up to help such people, administered by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. We have no objection to such a scheme because there is no brazen defiance of the laws of the State involved. This reasonableness has been a hallmark of the authorities. When then justice Minister, Dermot Ahern introduced belated reforms to deal with student visa abuse, one of them was a seven-year maximum on the length of time one could be on a student visa. This was introduced with great consideration during the transitional period. For example, if someone was halfway through a course they were allowed to finish it. That consideration was acceptable. What was not acceptable was what former justice Minister, Deputy Shatter, did under the 2004 student probationary extension scheme, where he effectively gave an amnesty to 2,661 students who had exceeded the seven-year maximum, plus an unknown number of spouses and children. Those 2,661 were told "You may stay and work in Ireland for ever," thereby keeping 2,661 Irish or legal immigrants on jobseeker's allowance. We want to see no more of that injustice done to our citizens by an amnesty for illegals. No amount of dressing up a scheme with criteria will change it from being, effectively, an amnesty. Thank you Chairman.