18,000 applicants seek leave to stay in Ireland

A TOTAL of 18,000 applications by non-national parents of Irish-born children seeking leave to remain in Ireland were received by the March 31 deadline this year, the Government confirmed yesterday.

The number of applications was greater than had been anticipated and means that the end-of-June deadline for processing the applications has been extended for a further six months.

A spokesperson for the Government told the Irish Examiner yesterday that only 8,000 of the 18,000 applications had been processed by the deadline.