Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 173: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the current or expected position in respect of an application in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30486/11]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 209: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the sequence and procedures to date in the determination of residency or naturalisation status in the case of persons (details supplied) in County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30709/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 173 and 209 together.

The persons concerned are a mother, who lodged an asylum application in October, 2005, and her two young children in respect of whom separate asylum applications were lodged in June, 2010. Their respective asylum applications were refused following the consideration of their individual cases by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.

Arising from the refusal of their respective asylum applications, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), the persons concerned were notified, the mother by letter dated 14th October, 2009 and the children by separate letters dated 14th October, 2010, that the then 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 a Deportation Order should not be made against them. In addition, they were notified of their respective entitlements to apply for Subsidiary Protection in accordance with the provisions of the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006.

The persons concerned submitted individual applications for Subsidiary Protection. However, on 4th March, 2011, the mother, through her legal representative, withdrew her application.

Following consideration of the children's Subsidiary Protection applications, it was determined that they were not eligible for Subsidiary Protection. The children were notified of these decisions by letters dated 20th June, 2011 and 21st June, 2011 respectively.

The position in the State of all three persons concerned will now be decided by reference to the provisions of 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. All representations submitted will be considered before final decisions are made. Once decisions have been made, these decisions, and the consequences of the decisions, will be conveyed in writing to the persons concerned.

I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.