Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I appreciate the Minister of State taking this Adjournment matter. The issue that arises concerns residency and is little less than an outrage, language I rarely use, and I have been a Member of this House for a long time.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform grants permission to stay under section 3 of the basic legislation. I will give an example without naming the individual concerned as the person is named in the question for information. A letter written in October states:

I am directed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to refer to your application for temporary permission to remain in the State. As an exceptional measure, I am to inform you that the Minister has decided to grant you temporary permission to remain in the State for three years until 21 October 2011.

Many people receive these letters. The letter goes on to set out a number of conditions in regard to the person's right to remain in the State. One has an expectation of being able to remain in the State permanently if one obeys the law.

What happens in Galway is that individuals who receive this type of letter, and who have been staying in hostel accommodation, later receive another letter. The individual concerned received the other letter the following day stating:

Dear. . . . .

The Reception and Integration Agency has been informed that you have been granted leave to remain. You must now make arrangements to move into the community and begin your new life in Ireland. As the accommodation you currently occupy is for asylum applicants and noting that you were granted leave to remain on 21 October 2008 you are required to leave this accommodation as soon as possible but no later than 11 November 2008.

The letter goes on to make many helpful suggestions.

The individual presented to the GNIB in Liosbán, where he was asked for his passport. He responded that he had with him an old passport when he arrived in Ireland. We spent two weeks trying to find that passport at the level of the Department, only for him to be told when he found it that an up-to-date passport was needed. Without a stamp four, the individual, who is only allowed to stay in his hostel out of charity, cannot register for housing, social services or medical benefits. Effectively, the GNIB is operating its own immigration policy in complete frustration of the policies of the INIS.

Four such cases are currently outstanding in Galway and gardaí have looked for an up-to-date passport in each. The people concerned are from Zimbabwe, where matters are impossible, Somalia, where there is no state, Liberia and Eritrea. In the Eritrean case, from which I cannot receive satisfaction, it is suggested that the Garda will write a travel document to enable the individual to leave Ireland in order to apply to the Eritrean Embassy in London. This individual has fled from Eritrea after coming under Islamist pressure for being a Christian. He will have to present himself to the embassy, pay £500 sterling and sign an undertaking that anything he earns in Ireland for the rest of his life will go back to Eritrea. The gardaí in Liosbán see nothing wrong with that scenario. In the original letter sent by the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Conor Lenihan, the suggestion was made that the Garda had received a faxed copy. When my office raised the matter, it was told that Garda procedures do not recognise facsimiles because one would not know what "they" would be up to in terms of forgeries.

The original letter in one case is still missing. It was sent from the Minister's office to the Phoenix Park. In another case, there is not even the sight of a letter. The remark made in Liosbán when my copy was produced was to the effect that I am only a Deputy and not a garda, so the individual concerned will not get a stamp four.

In my 30 years of public life, I have never been required to speak this way. I am conscious that half of my family have gone abroad. If I go to America I travel with Irish status and I am conscious that people have basic rights to move all over the world. I do not believe in a State that has an unaccountable police force. If any Deputy wishes to visit Liosbán, it is open from 7.30 a.m. until 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. until 3 p.m. No information is made available in any language. People arrive with their sleeping bags and wait their turn and, when they are told they will not get their stamp, they leave and return the following morning at 6.30 a.m. It is a scandal and a disgrace. I have before me a stack of letters on the issue.

I spoke to a decent sergeant and a good inspector who informed me that they forwarded my correspondence to the superintendent of the section, who will send it to the divisional chief superintendent. However, I cannot arrange a meeting with the western region Assistant Commissioner. I want these cases to be resolved before I raise them again next week in the Dáil.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I hope my reply will satisfy the individual concerned and I will immediately bring to the attention of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the issues raised by Deputy Higgins regarding Liosbán and, if difficulties remain, can facilitate a meeting with a Garda representative.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The regional Assistant Commissioner.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I find it hard to accept that members of the Garda would refuse to meet a democratically elected Member of the Oireachtas and I urge those who are in a position to assist the Deputy to do so.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

They did not refuse. They did not arrange a meeting. It was a waste of time.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I will urge them to arrange a meeting immediately and will bring the matter to the attention of the Minister.

I would like to clarify the procedures in place for the registration of non-EEA national persons who are granted residency in the State. Where a decision is made to approve a residency application following consideration by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, this decision is conveyed in writing to the applicant and, if known, his or her legal representative. The decision letter will advise the successful applicant of the period of residency that has been granted, the conditions attaching to this residency permission, the grounds under which permission can be revoked and the registration process involved.

The registration process requires the successful applicant to attend at his or her local Garda district headquarters station or at the offices of the Garda National Immigration Bureau in Dublin City Centre with the original copy of the decision letter of the Department and his or her national passport or some other form of photographic identification document.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The original letter is demanded. Copies or faxes will notsuffice.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Upon payment of the appropriate registration fee, the process is completed and results in the successful applicant being issued with a stamp four on his or her passport.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Other forms of photographic identification are not accepted. They are insisting in a thick way on one particular form of identity. It is as thick as it could be, and proud to be thick.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am sure that the passionate manner in which the Deputy raised the issue will cause those who are listening to take account of what he has said. I will raise the matter with the Minister and the Garda authorities.

The Minister strongly refutes the Deputy's contention that the procedures are in some way unreasonable. The Deputy will appreciate that it would not be at all appropriate to have a person conferred with an entitlement to reside in the State on an ongoing basis withoutbeing required to produce definitive documentary evidence as to his or her identity and nationality.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I never suggested that.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Minister would regard such a condition as being entirely reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances.

In regard to the individual to whom the Deputy referred, I understand he arrived in the State on 8 November 2004 and claimed asylum the following day. His asylum application was investigated by the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. Both investigations concluded that the person concerned did not meet the criteria for recognition as a refugee.

Arising from the rejection of his asylum application and in accordance with section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999, as amended, the person concerned was notified by letter dated 16 June 2008 of the Minister's proposal to issue a deportation order in respect of him. This communication also notified the person concerned of the options open to him at that point in time, namely, to leave the State voluntarily, to consent to deportation or to submit, within 15 working days, written representations to the Minister setting out the reasons he should be allowed to remain temporarily in the State. Representations were submitted on behalf of the person concerned at that time.

Following consideration of the person's case under section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1999 and section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 on the prohibition of refoulement, the Minister decided, as an exceptional measure and subject to certain stated conditions, to grant temporary leave to remain in the State for a three year period until 21 October 2011. This decision was conveyed in writing by a letter dated 21 October 2008 which explained in detail the means by which registration in the State could be effected.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

He has to go to London.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I understand from the Garda Siochána that the registration process has not yet been completed. Accordingly, it is recommended that the individual should proceed to procure any outstanding documentation required of him in the context of his registration in the State so that he can clearly show that he is making every effort to become economically viable in the State, which is one of the stated conditions under which he was granted residency.