Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the people who are in the Public Gallery this evening. I recognise many of them from the sittings of the committee and the hearings that took place some months ago. I welcome the publication of the report. Deputy Jack Chambers and I were the Fianna Fáil representatives on the committee and we support the report fully and would like to see it implemented.

When the history of the 21st century is written one of the earliest chapters will be on the great migration of the early 21st century. There are times in history when great migrations take place and we are living through one of those occasions at present. Deputy Coppinger referred to the war in Syria. That is one of the major reasons for the great migration we have experienced. Also, 100 years ago there was a great migration after the Russian Revolution when people left that country. These migrations happen on the occurrence of traumatic and terrible events. We experienced it ourselves in this country. The census in 1841 showed that we had a population of 8.1 million. Today we are nowhere near getting back to that, which gives an indication of the impact of the Great Famine on the people of this island.

I wish to focus on one part of the report concerning the undocumented. Sometimes when there is a discussion about migration, asylum and undocumented people it reverts back to statistics and the consequences those numbers may have. The benefit of being a member of the justice committee is that we had an opportunity to hear evidence from individuals. We got away from statistical analysis. We heard individuals come before us who could give their own life story. I am pleased to note that in the appendix of one of the reports there is an account of the evidence given by Priya who is from Mauritius, who I hope is in the Gallery this evening. She gave an account of what life is like for her as a person who has been in Ireland for eight years and who has brought up two children. She gave us evidence about the lie those children must live when they go to school or are in the local clubs indicating to their friends around them that there is no issue. They appear to every person to be individuals who are as documented or as Irish as anyone else in their school or club but, unfortunately, they have to live with a terrible burden on their shoulders, namely, that they know they can be removed from their lives here at a moment. I know an application to stay on sympathetic grounds exists but nobody should be put through a life that requires them to live on tenterhooks where they realise their status within the country could be lost as a result of an executive decision.

I note what the Minister of State said in respect of the report. I am disappointed with his response in respect of the undocumented. I suspect he probably does agree with many of the findings in the report. I do not know what happens when people go into the Department of Justice and Equality but it seems to be that policy decisions seem to change from what politicians wish to do before they go in there. Ministers get an opportunity to be Ministers for a couple of years. Most of them are forgotten. It is not that they do very little but most of them do very little of long-term recognition. There is an opportunity for the Minister of State to do something that would stand to his credit and be there for many years to come.

One of the reasons the Minister of State said we cannot go down the undocumented route is because there is no reliable way of estimating the actual number of persons who could be involved. Perhaps as a method of starting a process why does the Department of Justice and Equality not begin an inquiry or survey to find out how many undocumented people there are in the country? That is a public service. It would be a benefit. When one thinks of the time we spend recording other issues of irrelevance that is something that does merit a record. Even though the Minister of State has not stated he is in favour of the recommendations in the report I urge him to go back to the Department and say that in order to resolve the issue and to deal with it adequately we need to find out exactly how many undocumented people there are in this country. Once we find that out we could start a process whereby, as Fianna Fáil put forward in 2015, we could have a regularisation scheme. People who have been here for a certain number of years could apply over a short period and it would not have the effect of opening the floodgates, as appears to be the concern in some quarters in the Government. I urge the Minister of State to consider that. I do not think it is fair on the individuals concerned. Children growing up here who are members of clubs and going to school are entitled to have their status regularised. We are doing a disservice to them if we do not. Also, there would be a great benefit in doing that. In 1841 we had 8.1 million people on this island. We need more people here.

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