Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 686: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the circumstances in which he is willing to grant family reunification in the cases of persons who were granted residency rights here on account of having Irish born children; if, with the passage of time when such persons are eligible to apply for naturalisation, his policy changes towards the circumstances in which opportunities for family unification would be granted; and if new policy initiatives in this are planned. [10853/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the issue of claims for leave to remain in the State by the non-national parents of Irish-born children has been a matter of serious concern to the Government. A claimed right to reside in Ireland based solely on the birth of a child in Ireland had come to be used as a method of attempting to circumvent normal immigration controls. In order to address these concerns, a referendum was held in June 2004 to amend the citizenship provisions in the Constitution which was overwhelmingly carried. This allowed the Oireachtas to deal with the issue of citizenship for children of non-national parents and the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 was enacted.

There were also concerns as to the knock-on consequences of granting permission to remain to the parents of Irish-born children and the extent to which family reunification was being used to bring other family members into the State. Following the enactment of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004, I introduced the IBC/05 scheme which facilitated the non-national parents of Irish-born children who wished to remain in this State. Almost 17,000 people were granted permission to remain in Ireland under the terms of this scheme. All those who availed of the IBC/05 scheme have signed a declaration indicating their understanding that permission to remain granted under the IBC/05 scheme would not extend to any entitlement to be joined by family members from abroad.

The general policy of the Government is not to grant family reunification to persons who have permission to remain in the State on the basis of parentage of an Irish-born child. However, any such applications are examined on a case-by-case basis. The Government has no plans to change this policy for the future.