Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I am happy to give way to the Minister and we will potentially have an interesting Second Stage on this.Whatever about the aspects of the Bill that carry over in existing law, the Bill is also an opportunity to improve on existing law, not just to tighten it and make it more firm, but also possibly to make it more fair. The section whereby we require people, as in olden days, to write to the Vatican for permission to marry is not the kind of thing I want to see in Irish law.

I would like to address the delay in deciding on asylum applications. I do not see why we cannot have a provision whereby if the State fails to make a decision on an asylum case after, say, one year, direct provision ends and the applicant is free, if not required, to enter the labour market and support him or herself. The State should be able to make a reasonable or initial decision in that period. Such a provision would encourage and force the Department to make decisions faster. Perhaps there is a case for that.

I would like to mention the delay it takes to process long-term residency and naturalisation applications. We often discuss the knowledge economy. I have a number of people in my constituency who are highly qualified, work in IBM in Blanchardstown, own property in some cases and pay tax, and are expected to wait three years for their application to be assessed or four or five years for naturalisation. That is unjust. In many cases the application is not looked at for two years, whereas we all know if the application was looked at for 25 minutes it would be granted. When my father applied for naturalisation after living here and being a de facto citizen for 20 years it was processed rapidly. Ten years on a similar person has to wait five years for a decision. That is not justifiable.

The leave to remain granted to parents of Irish-born children could be addressed in the Bill. There are many parents of Irish citizen children and Irish-born children who have been here since before the referendum. Perhaps there is a case for something similar to the McCain-Kennedy Bill to introduce a means by which the status of these people can be regularised, a pathway to permanent residency or, more important, citizenship so we do not continue to have people in a grey area for the rest of their lives. That applies to children of immigrants who are not entitled to higher education grants, which is an appalling injustice. If the people are going to be here and we accept they are staying, we may as well recognise it and allow them the grants. It is absurd to leave people in that kind of limbo.

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