Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 240: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason a convicted cocaine smuggler, sentenced to ten years in 1999 but having had their sentence reduced on appeal to six years, has been granted refugee status here (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32178/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The person concerned, a Jamaican national, entered the State on 10 November 1998. She was subsequently arrested and charged with an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1997 and 1984. Following a guilty plea, she was convicted and was sentenced on 23 March 1999 to a period of imprisonment of 16 years, six years of which were suspended. On 20 March 2000, the sentence was further reduced to a total of seven years on appeal. This person was released from prison in February 2004 having completed her sentence.

Earlier, in April 2002, it was decided to offer this person an early release from prison for the purpose of her early repatriation to Jamaica. On 24 July 2002, the person was accordingly asked to sign a consent form but she refused. A notification under section 3(4) of the Immigration Act 1999, as amended, indicating an intention to deport was subsequently served on her but, on 5 September 2002, she made an asylum application while still in Mountjoy prison.

As the Deputy will be aware, under sections 6 and 15 of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended, two independent offices exist to consider applications and appeals from applicants for refugee status and to make recommendations to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on whether such status should be granted. These two offices are the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, which considers applications for a declaration as a refugee at first instance, and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which considers applications for a declaration at appeal stage.

This person's asylum application was initially investigated by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner. This application was refused on 18 March 2003 with the recommendation being communicated to the applicant on 8 April 2003. The applicant appealed this decision to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal on 29 April 2003. On 6 April 2004, the tribunal set aside the earlier Refugee Applications Commissioner's recommendation and instead recommended that the applicant be declared a refugee. This recommendation was reissued to the applicant on 1 June 2004. It should be noted that the member of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal who made the decision to recommend the granting of refugee status in this case was aware of the applicant's drugs conviction in this country and her imprisonment. Indeed, the oral hearing of the appeal was heard in the Mountjoy Prison complex on 20 October 2003.

The issuing of a declaration pursuant to a recommendation of the Refugee Applications Commissioner or the Appeals Tribunal is governed by section 17(1) of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended, which states: "Subject to the subsequent provisions of this section, where a report under section 13 is furnished to the Minister or where the Tribunal sets aside a recommendation of the Commissioner under section 16, the Minister (a) shall, in case the report or, as the case may be, the decision of the Tribunal includes a recommendation that the applicant concerned should be declared to be a refugee, give to the applicant a statement in writing (in this Act referred to as "a declaration") declaring that the applicant is a refugee". Accordingly, and in line with section 17(1)(a) of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended, the declaration was granted. This declaration was furnished to the applicant on 14 April 2005. In tandem with that declaration, I instructed that this person's refugee status be kept under continuous review to see if she should be repatriated and I am informed by the Garda Commissioner that she has not come to the adverse attention of the Garda Síochána since her release from prison.