Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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341. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will intervene to overturn the decision to refuse a family unification visa in respect of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 15. [2676/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The visa application referred to by the Deputy was received in the Visa Office, Abu Dhabi on 30 October, 2014. Following full consideration, the Visa Officer decided to refuse the grant of the visa on 2 November, 2014. The decision to refuse was appealed on 14 December, 2014 and was upheld by an Appeals Officer on 24 December, 2014. A letter providing the reasons for this was issued to the applicant. At both the stage of the original decision and at appeal stage, it was considered that the financial situation of the sponsor in Ireland fell substantially short of the financial criteria as set out in Paragraph 17.2 of the Policy Document on Non-EEA Family Reunification agreed by the Government last year. In these circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that the granting of a visa in this case could result in a cost to State funds or resources.

As the appeal process has been completed, the application in question is now closed. However, it is always open to the person concerned to make a new application at any time should they so wish, especially if their or the sponsor's circumstances change. In making a new application, the applicant should be in a position to address the reasons for the original refusal.

Guidelines regarding the visa application procedures are available on the website of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service - www.inis.gov.ie. Queries in relation to general matters may be made directly to INIS by email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which as 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 email service except in cases where the response from INIS is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.