Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 234: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will consider the implementation of an earned regularisation scheme which provides a chance for undocumented migrants to earn their way to permanent residency for them and their families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40431/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply below to Parliamentary Question 168 of 17 November 2011, Parliamentary Questions 161 and 174 of 24 November 2011 and Parliamentary Question 276 of 6 December 2011. The position is unchanged since then.

I am aware that there have been proposals of this nature and of course my Department will give due consideration to the issue. However great caution should be exercised before embarking on such a project. A proposal of this nature could give rise to very large, unpredictable and potentially very costly impacts across the full range of public and social services.

At EU level, the Member States, in agreeing the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum at the European Council in October 2008, made specific commitments "to use only case-by-case regularisation, rather than generalised regularisation, under national law, for humanitarian or economic reasons". While the Pact is not legally binding, the political commitment among the Member States, then and now, is clearly against any form of process that would in any way legitimise the status of those unlawfully present without first examining the merits of their individual case.

Any possible implication for the operation of the Common Travel Area would also have to be very carefully considered.