Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, would like to thank the Senator for giving him the opportunity of updating the House on the way in which the immigration system is working in the interests of the economy. The Irish short-stay visa waiver programme commenced on 1 July 2011 and was scheduled to run on a pilot basis until the end of October 2012, taking in the period of the London Olympic Games. Under the programme, tourists or business people who have lawfully entered the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, on a valid UK visa are able to travel on to Ireland without the requirement to obtain an Irish visa. Nationals of 16 countries are included in the programme, including India, China, Russia, various priority Middle East countries and others. As part of the initiative, nationals of these countries who are long-term legal residents in the United Kingdom will have the cost of an Irish visa waived should they wish to visit Ireland. It is estimated that there are up to 1 million people in this category in the United Kingdom.

The Government agreed on 28 February to the extension of the programme for a further period of four years, that is, to the end of October 2016; to add Bosnia-Herzegovina to the programme, and, as a further measure to encourage tourism, to waive the fee for visas for long-term residents of countries covered by the programme who live in the Schengen area. This will be reviewed after six months.

As announced in a joint ministerial communiqué before Christmas, Ireland and the United Kingdom are also working on developing a possible common travel area visa. If this were to be realised, it would clearly be a boost to tourism.

Important as these visa developments are, we need to realise that the overwhelming number of current and likely visitors to Ireland for tourism purposes do not need a visa. The major fluctuations in our tourist numbers in recent years have little to do with visas. Nevertheless, the Minister has indicated that whenever we can use the immigration system in a sensible way to boost tourism, we will do so. For those who do need visas for tourism purposes or otherwise, it is probably worth recalling that the approval rates for Irish visas in our dedicated overseas visa offices in 2011 were actually very high and ran at 97% in Russia, 92% in China, 91% in India and 87% in Abu Dhabi, covering the Gulf and north Africa.

On 13 March the Minister formally launched two new programmes aimed at facilitating non-EEA migrant entrepreneurs and investors. These programmes will be open for applications from next month. The Minister had the pleasure of taking part in a debate on them a number of weeks ago in this House. Their purpose is to support direct or indirect job creation by harnessing the investment resources and entrepreneurial potential of migrants. To qualify for the immigrant investor programme, the migrant must make an investment of a designated type, ranging from a €2 million specially created low interest Government bond, a capital investment in an Irish business that creates or protects jobs, to a €500,000 endowment in the cultural, sports, educational or health areas. Investment in property may also qualify in certain cases. The start-up entrepreneur programme provides that migrants with a good business idea in the innovation economy and funding of €75,000 can be given residency in the State for the purposes of developing their business.

A lot of work has been done in the last couple of years on the issue of student immigration, both by this and the previous Government. We now have a coherent strategy covering promotion, quality assurance and immigration. This includes enhanced opportunities for graduates to stay on after they qualify.

It is not just a question of adopting a whole of government approach but also a case of the Government working alongside reputable industry stakeholders. There is widespread agreement that the future for Ireland in this area lies in offering a high quality product. The ultimate aim is to increase the number of international students and, consequently, earnings from this vital sector. However, it is not a case of numbers at all costs. Student immigration channels are recognised in every jurisdiction as being open to abuse by economic migrants; therefore, we must be clear that we are selling education, rather than jobs. Colleges which do not recognise this reality have a very limited future. We need to develop or, in some cases, redevelop key markets. In this regard, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service is working in partnership with the colleges on a number of programmes, the most recent of which is a pilot scheme with the English language sector to relaunch the Chinese market for adults and juniors.

These initiatives send certain important messages: first, that Ireland is open for business; second, that we are prepared to think creatively about how to use the immigration system in support of the national economic interest; and, third, that any changes must be properly thought through in advance and based on appropriate risk assessment.