Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a significant advance. I commend those organisations that campaigned for this. It was not a short campaign and, while the Minister responded in a good spirit to the decision of the Supreme Court, it did ultimately take a Supreme Court decision to bring the Government into this space. I commend the Immigrant Council of Ireland, the Migrant Rights Council, Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, MASI, and many others. I particularly commend the Rohingya man who took the case of NVH versus the Minister for Justice and Equality.

Notwithstanding that it is a significant advance, the Minister has not responded to two difficulties with the scheme as announced. The first is that I would have preferred an entitlement to work after a six month period rather than the nine months that has been decided. That would have been in line with what the Immigrant Council decided. More significantly, I am disappointed that it appears that those who have already received a negative first instance decision from the international protection office will be excluded regardless of how long they have been here. That means the international protection appeals tribunal has significant delays and this will mean that some of the people who have been here the longest, a large category of perhaps several hundred people, will be excluded from the scheme and will not be able to avail of the right to work.

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