Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the current residency status and further requirements if any to facilitate regularisation of status and or naturalisation in the case of persons (details supplied) in County Meath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35413/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The persons concerned, a husband and wife, entered the State on 27th July, 2004, the husband on student conditions and his wife as his dependant, and they were granted permission to remain in the State on those bases until 10th May, 2007. They were subsequently granted extensions of their respective permissions to remain up to 13th January, 2010, to enable a prospective employer to apply for a Work Permit on behalf of the husband. My Department's records indicate that his efforts to obtain a Work Permit at that time were unsuccessful.

Given that the persons concerned had no legal basis to remain in the State beyond 13th May, 2010, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), they were notified, by separate letters dated 16th June, 2011, of the proposal 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.

The position in the State of the persons concerned now falls to 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.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response from the INIS is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.