Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 531: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when a decision will be reached on the application by persons (details supplied) in County Waterford to be allowed to remain in the State on humanitarian grounds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4514/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The immigration case histories and up to date positions of the two persons concerned, a husband and wife, are almost identical. As a result, I will deal with the two cases as one. Both of the persons concerned arrived in the State on 1 March 2007 and applied for asylum. Their respective asylum applications were refused following the individual consideration of their cases by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.

Subsequently, in accordance with Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), both were informed, she by letter dated 17 July 2007 and he by letter dated 12 September 2007, that the Minister proposed to make deportation orders in respect of them. They were each given the options, to be exercised within 15 working days, of leaving the State voluntarily, of consenting to the making of a deportation order or of making representations to the Minister setting out the reasons why they should be allowed to remain temporarily in the State. In addition, both were separately notified that they were eligible to apply for Subsidiary Protection in accordance with regulations known as the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations, S.I. No. 518 of 2006, which came into force on 10 October 2006. Both of the persons concerned submitted an application for Subsidiary Protection in the State in accordance with these Regulations and these applications are under consideration at present. When consideration of these applications has been completed, the persons concerned will be individually notified in writing of the outcome.

In the event that the Subsidiary Protection applications are refused, the individual case files of the persons concerned, including all representations submitted, will be considered under Section 3 (6) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) and Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended) on the Prohibition of Refoulement. When this latter consideration has been completed, the case files of the persons concerned will be passed to me for decision.