Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 119: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons granted leave to remain in the State in each of the past three years; the number granted leave to date in 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10861/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I presume the Deputy is referring to applications for leave to remain made pursuant to section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1999, as amended.

Leave to remain in these circumstances arise where a non-national is served with a notice of intent to deport under section 3(3)(a) of the Immigration Act 1999. A person served with such a notice of intent is afforded three options, namely, to leave the State voluntarily, to consent to the making of the deportation order, or to make representations in writing within 15 working days setting out reasons a deportation order should not be made and why temporary leave to remain in the State be granted instead.

Under section 3(6) of the Act the Minister, in determining whether to make a deportation order, shall have regard to 11 specified considerations, one of which is any representation made by or on behalf of the person. The determination as to whether a deportation order is made or whether leave to remain is granted is not dependent on whether, in fact, the person has made representations for leave to remain. Thus, statistics are not maintained to distinguish between cases where representations have been made for leave to remain from those where no such representations were made.

The relevant statistics for the past three years are as follows:

In my reply to Question No. 94 on Wednesday, 16 February 2005, I gave the number of such temporary leave to remain as 140 for 2004. The correct figure should have been 175, as indicated above. I apologise for this incorrect information which was due to an incomplete transfer of data from an old database to a new management information system in my Department. I wrote to the Deputy concerned and to the Editor of Dáil Debates to correct the record of the House.