John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

——for the procession of asylum applications. This included the Immigration Act 1999, which introduced provisions for the effective processing of applications for refugee status; the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, a new independent statutory agency to decide on asylum applications; the Office of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, a second independent statutory agency to decide on asylum appeals; the Refugee Legal Service to ensure that independent legal advice was available to asylum seekers at all stages of the asylum process; the Reception and Integration Agency to co-ordinate the dispersal of asylum seekers throughout the country to ensure that they were provided with accommodation and services; significant additional staffing resources — the largest allocation of resources to any area of the Civil Service by the then Government — to ensure that all asylum applications were dealt with efficiently and effectively; the fingerprinting of asylum seekers to facilitate the detection of multiple applicants; and the effective application of the Dublin Convention.

I also introduced a series of necessary measures to combat illegal immigration and to prevent abuse of the asylum procedure to circumvent legal immigration controls. These included the Immigration Act 1999 which put the State's procedures for deportations on a statutory basis for the first time ever and set out the rights of persons liable to be deported and the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000 which provided for an unlimited fine or up to ten years' imprisonment or both for a person convicted on indictment of trafficking in persons. I introduced substantive changes in regard to the acquisition of Irish citizenship by non-nationals who marry Irish citizens in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2001 to restrict the scope for abuse in this area and provided for the forfeiture of the means of transport used for trafficking in illegal immigrants. I established the Garda National Immigration Bureau, led by a detective chief superintendent, to combat trafficking and to co-ordinate the effective implementation of deportation orders. I established a statutory scheme of judicial review in asylum and immigration cases to ensure that, after all due procedures have been gone through, the judicial process could not be used to frustrate a person's deportation where it had been held that there was no basis for the non-national's continued stay in the State and a draft scheme of the immigration (carriers liability) Bill which provides that an airline or ferry bringing a passenger to Ireland without adequate immigration documentation would be subject to financial penalty.

I also established closer contacts at both strategic and operational level with the authorities in the UK and France and Garda liaison officers took up duty in London and Paris. I introduced readmission agreements with Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Nigeria, a streamlined system to facilitate the lawful entry of persons into the jurisdiction in conjunction with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to ensure that labour shortages in the economy could be addressed through legal immigration to the State and a comprehensive modern code of immigration and residence law to provide for the implementation of fair and sensible immigration policies, while at the same time respecting the rights of non-nationals in their dealings with the law.

During my term as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform I was determined to ensure that immigrants, irrespective of their status or whether they happened to be here legally or illegally, had their human rights fully respected. Measures introduced included the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act, 2000 which are generally regarded as being the most comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation in the EU. The Equality Authority and the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations, two independent statutory agencies, were set up to implement this legislation. There was ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. We established the Human Rights Commission under the Human Rights Commission Act 2000 and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism to develop programmes and actions aimed at developing an integrated approach against racism.

I am proud that between the years 1997 and 2002 I put in place a modern, up-to-date policy approach with a legislative framework consistent with best international practice and an innovative administrative structure with the necessary resources to ensure the efficient and effective discharge of policy in the asylum and immigration areas. I am pleased to note that this policy approach has been followed by my successor in office and that the legislative framework and administrative structure introduced by me have stood the test of time.

Members opposite may wish to forget it now but all this was done in the face of trenchant and vociferous opposition from powerful forces inside this House and outside of it.

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