‘Amnesty’ for non-national parents of Irish children

AN amnesty is effectively being granted to non-national parents of Irish children as it emerged more than 11,000 have been told they can stay in the State.

Only 165 applicants have been refused, but none has yet been deported.

Close to 18,000 people applied to remain under a scheme set up after legislation was introduced at the start of this year ending automatic citizenship for children born on the island of Ireland. This followed the June 2004 referendum, when four out of every five voters (79%) voted in favour of changing the Constitution to end automatic citizenship.

The Supreme Court, in February 2003, had already judged that non-national parents of Irish children had no automatic right to remain here.

It is now known that close to 30,000 people - mothers, fathers and children - were left in legal limbo between the Supreme Court decision and legislation change.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell, when announcing a special scheme to deal with these people, said an amnesty would cause “chaos”. He added that individual applications would be dealt with in a “common sense, pragmatic and decent” manner.

The Justice Department said yesterday: “We would certainly not call it an amnesty. Each case is being judged on its own merits.”

Of the 18,000 applications, the majority thought to be from mothers, received before the end of March this year, 11,365 have been processed and all but 165 have been accepted for residency. It is not known how many Irish children are affected overall, but it is conservatively estimated to be at least 10,000.

Where these Irish-born children have older brothers or sisters who were not born here, the siblings are also being allowed to remain. It is likely the siblings will have to apply for residency themselves at either age 16 or 18.

If the present trend of granting residency continues - the process is likely to be completed before the end of the year - the overwhelming majority will be allowed to stay. An arm of the Department of Justice, the Irish Born Children’s Unit, is dealing with the applications.

Crucially, the applications are being processed on the basis of when they were received between January 17 and March 31 this year, and not on birth date. Someone who first applied for residency before the Supreme Court judgment could conceivably be dealt with after a mother who gave birth last December, just before the change in law.

Of those refused, the reasons cited include criminal convictions and not being continuously resident here since the birth.

Catherine Cosgrave, legal officer with the Immigrant Council, does not agree the State has been generous in granting residency.

“Many of those who applied would have become parents before the Supreme Court judgment,” she said. They were not processed and had to apply again under this year’s new scheme.