Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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302. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of visa applications for family members of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens since the second quarter of 2015. [43822/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that the table sets out the position in relation to the number of visa applications received for family members of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, by nationality (top ten countries) and a combined figure for all other nationalities for each of the years in the period in question.

As the Deputy may be aware, there was an exponential increase from the second quarter of 2015 in the number of such applications.  That gave rise to a particular caseload of around 10,500 applications which had to be assessed very carefully to ensure that any fraudulent applications or potential abuses of the Directive are detected and considered appropriately.  The majority of these have now been processed. 

Most of the sponsors in these particular cases were United Kingdom nationals who came here claiming to be exercising EU Treaty Rights.  INIS had serious concerns about many of these cases, particularly as they appeared to be using the Common Travel Area to circumvent national UK immigration rules for family reunification. However, under the Directive genuine movement must be taking place by the EU national, such as taking up employment, etc.  A series of measures were taken by INIS including defending cases in the Courts, working with the Garda National Immigration Bureau to address abuses, and working in close cooperation with UK counterparts who subsequently made changes to their laws.  Since these measures were taken, the numbers of such new applicants dropped off dramatically in 2017 and this year to date. 

Legal proceedings in relation to a number of such applications have been before the courts, and a referral was made by the Court of the Appeal to the European Court of Justice.

More generally, the central concern, as with all visa services worldwide, in deciding on visa applications is to strike an appropriate balance between protecting the country's vital national interests by maintaining an effective immigration regime while at the same time facilitating travel for those who meet the criteria.  Each visa application is therefore decided on its own merits taking all factors into account.

Applications received from 1 July, 2015 to end of September, 2018