Some 700 asylum-seekers who are parents of children born in the State are to be given the right to work, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, has said.
Speaking at the committee stage debate of the Immigration Bill in the Seanad, the Minister also said the Government was considering the introduction of a quota system, whereby a certain number of non-nationals would be allowed into the State to take up jobs.
A spokesman for the Minister said refugee parents of Irish-born children would hear "within a couple of weeks" that their position is to be regularised.
This will mean they will have the same rights as their children who are Irish citizens and will be thus be allowed to take jobs here.
"We're satisfied from our consideration of the files that the vast, vast majority of cases will be regularised," the spokesman said.
"There will be certain exemptions, but it is expected that these will be very rare," he said. This would arise where people had committed serious crime, "at the top end of the scale, not misdemeanours".
Asylum-seekers who came to Ireland specifically to give birth and then left the State would also be exempt, he said. "Those whose sole purpose for coming here was to avail of our citizenship rights would be exempt," he said.
The move was being made after consideration of a Supreme Court judgment in the early 1990s which granted full citizenship to the children of asylum-seekers. The Minister's stated position that he is not in favour of granting work permits to asylum-seekers whose applications are being processed had not changed. However, he said it was planned to reduce the processing time for asylum cases to six months in the next year.
Some 4,000 cases were outstanding at the beginning of 1998 and all cases would be processed in six months by this time next year. On the question of a quota system allowing a certain number of non-nationals to take up jobs in the State, the spokesman said this was now under consideration.
If introduced, the scheme would be similar to those in countries such as the United States and Australia.
The Immigration Bill is expected to become law within days, said the spokesman.
