Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will start by thanking the organisations that appeared before the justice committee and helped us in compiling the report - the Nasc, the MRCI, Justice for the Undocumented - and all of the people who told us their stories. They helped to shape a report that received unanimous support, including from members of the Minister of State's party.

The five serious suggestions contained in the report are not being proposed as some pipe dream or just for the craic. Everyone who attended our meetings believed it was the right thing for the State to do. The Minister of State's reply to the report was far from satisfactory. He was previously a member of the committee and made suggestions that supported ours, but what, in God's name, does it say about a society if elected parliamentarians, including members of an all-party body, across two Dáil terms can suggest an amnesty and a regularised programme for undocumented migrants but the unelected government, the Department of Justice and Equality or whoever can long-finger it, can try to throw out red herrings as to why it would not be a good idea? I imagine that I speak for everyone on the committee when I say that is not good enough.

This is the second time one of the key programmes outlined in the report has been proposed by the justice committee, but we believe the issue of the undocumented can no longer be long-fingered. At least 20,000 undocumented individuals are living, working and raising families in Ireland, but they have been left in limbo and are unable to move on with their lives. They are the backbone of the caring sector. In many instances, they are the women who, non-regularised, are looking after old and young people. They cannot even regularise their lives for their own parents or children. It is despicable. The MRCI's proposal - a six-month scheme under which undocumented persons who have been in Ireland could become regularised for three or four reasons - is reasonable. It is not radical or scary and would not require legislation. It could be implemented without delay. I do not accept that we should delay it further. The Government's response to this proposal, that it would somehow have a "pull" factor, is ludicrous. The excuses the Minister of State made-----

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