Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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101. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her proposals to introduce an administrative scheme for migrants who wish to regularise their undocumented status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17330/16]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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103. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the time the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service requires to administer applications from migrants seeking to regularise their status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17332/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 101 and 103 together.

I have no plans to introduce a general regularisation scheme for those who are currently undocumented in the State as 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. Also any possible implication for the operation of the Common Travel Area would also have to be very carefully considered.

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 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 cases. It is open to persons in an undocumented situation to present their case on its merits, to have it considered and to abide by the decision.

We are entitled to expect that people coming here will obey our laws, including those that relate to immigration. It is open to any foreign national who finds him or herself in an undocumented situation to apply to the authorities for permission to remain. Cases are carefully considered before a decision is made and it is reasonable for the State to expect that people will respect that decision. It should also be remembered that most people become undocumented through their own conscious actions or omissions. Recognising that in a minority of instances that may not be the case, the Department has operated a scheme - for those who already held an employment permit - to address the situation of those who became undocumented through no fault of their own. All cases are dealt with on an individual basis and if the Deputy has a particular case in mind he should contact the officials in my Department with the details.

Ireland has shown itself to be a country that is open to migration. In that regard, it should be noted that over the past 5 years nearly 100,000 persons have been naturalised.