Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 125: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the reason requests for the return of original academic certificates to a person (details supplied) were only returned following a letter from his solicitor, the Department having denied being in possession of them many times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36903/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset I would like to advise the Deputy that documents submitted by an applicant as evidence of identity or nationality, or in support of a case to be permitted to remain in the State, can only be returned to that applicant once the case has had a definitive outcome.

Insofar as the case referred to by the Deputy is concerned, the person had a Deportation Order made against him on 29 May, 2006 and once this Order was served, on 2 June, 2006, the documents referred to by the Deputy were retained by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). This Order was challenged by way of judicial review proceedings which, when finalised, resulted in the Deportation Order being revoked on 14 August, 2008, and the case returned to my Department for further consideration. The case was finalised on 19 September 2008 with the person concerned having been granted permission to remain in the State with effect from that date.

A number of requests were received from the person concerned seeking the return of his documents and all such requests were responded to with an indication that the sought documents were not on the Department's file. This was the factual position at those times. These documents were returned by the GNIB to my Department in early July 2010 and were returned to the person concerned under cover of a letter dated 5 July 2010.

I can assure the Deputy that there was no intention on the part of any person in my Department to withhold the documents concerned once this case had a definitive outcome, which it did since 19 September 2008. Equally, I am entirely satisfied that once these documents were returned to my Department, they were returned to their owner without delay. I am satisfied also that there was no connection between the request being made by the relevant solicitor and the return of the documents. Had the documents been in my Department's possession at an earlier date, they would have been returned sooner.