One hundred and forty-one Kosovar refugees, displaced by ethnic cleansing and the war in former Yugoslavia, are to be allowed to stay in Ireland indefinitely on humanitarian grounds.
A Government announcement will be made early this week, according to reliable sources, and the Refugee Agency will be given responsibility for integrating the families, which include children as well as grandparents, into Irish society.
The refugees will be free to apply for Irish citizenship within five years.
Many of those affected are already in full-time employment or education, and they live at reception centres in Waterford and Tralee in Co Kerry.
They were reluctant to return home. They are all that remain of more than 1,000 Kosovar refugees admitted into the State at the height of the war.
During the past few years refugees have gradually returned home, helped by Government resettlement grants and a formal aid package.
The majority returned to their homes in Kosovo last year. The cost of bringing the refugees here, providing for them and resettling them came to between £5 and £6 million.
The refugee scheme has been co-ordinated by the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, at the Department of Foreign Affairs. She told The Irish Times: "I have always recommended that no one should be forcibly repatriated, so I would wholeheartedly welcome this move.
"It is exactly as I wanted it to turn out and I am delighted that the overall programme will be coming to such a successful conclusion. This could not have been achieved without the help of the many agencies that contributed to the programme.
"The multi-agency approach is the key to successful integration and I want to pay special tribute to the staff of the Refugee Agency."
The agency, under the aegis of the Department of Foreign Affairs, is to be incorporated into the Reception and Integration Agency under the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform within the next three months. The new body will assume responsibility for the resettlement of the Kosovars.
It is understood the refugee reception centres in Waterford and Tralee will close before the summer, and the Kosovar families may be integrated locally or travel to other parts of the State.