Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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166. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding residency status and-or eligibility for naturalisation in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 1; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50082/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The person concerned first applied for asylum on 27th May, 2003. He subsequently withdrew that application and indicated a willingness to return voluntarily to his country of origin. However, he did not complete the voluntary return process. The person concerned subsequently consented to deportation and against this background a Deportation Order was made in respect of him on 6th May, 2004. However, in accordance with the provisions of section 3(8) of the Immigration Act 1999, as this consent based Deportation Order was not effected by the relevant date it ceased to have legal effect.

The person concerned subsequently sought to be re-admitted to the asylum process and this request was facilitated with the consequence that a new asylum application was lodged on 3rd March, 2005. This asylum application was refused following consideration of the case by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.

Subsequently, in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), the person concerned was notified, by letter dated 14th November, 2005, that the then Minister proposed to make a Deportation Order in respect of him. He was 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 written representations to the then Minister setting out the reasons why he should not have a Deportation Order made against him. Written representations have been submitted on behalf of the person concerned.

The position in the State of the person 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 a final decision is made. Once a final decision has been made, this decision, and the consequences of the decision, will be conveyed in writing to the person concerned.

Given that the person concerned has no current right of residency in the State, the Deputy will appreciate that the issue of an application for a Certificate of Naturalisation does not arise at this time.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the INIS of my Department 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.