The Government plans to enact new powers to clamp down on illegal immigration before the next general election, requiring non-EU citizens to carry biometric identity cards and allowing gardaí to summarily detain and deport illegal immigrants.
A Department of Justice spokesman confirmed yesterday that the heads of the proposed immigration, residence and protection Bill was a "priority piece of legislation" and would be brought to Cabinet shortly. The Bill will then be drafted.
The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, intends that the Oireachtas will pass it before the general election, expected in early summer next year.
Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe welcomed the proposals yesterday but suggested they had been made public at this time to deflect attention from this week's damaging reports on the prison system. Labour's Brendan Howlin said his party was open to having a debate on the issue of an ID card, but not one for one section of the population that could become "a race or ethnic card".
According to the forthcoming Bill, the proposed new identity and residency card would contain biometric information such as fingerprints and may be required to gain access to public services. It would make it easier for gardaí to identify quickly people who were in Ireland illegally and to move to deport them.
There is already a card issued by the Garda containing biometric information to non-EU nationals. The Bill will give legal backing to the use of biometric data and will make it compulsory for these cards to be carried at all times.
The proposed legislation is also expected to make welfare payments less readily available to asylum seekers. It will also propose the reform of the appeals system for those denied refugee status. It would abolish the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which has been the subject of sustained criticism over the lack of transparency of its decision-making process.
The present appeal system involves the review of an asylum application by the Refugee Applications Commissioners. A negative decision may be appealed to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. If there is a further negative decision, there may be another detailed examination of the case.
The Bill would replace this system with a single body to which appeals would be made.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice would not give details of this new system but said it aimed to ensure there was a fair and transparent process.
Mr McDowell and his officials have been working on a major reform of the immigration legislation since last year and with all parties now seeing immigration as an important issue with many voters, the Government is expected to proceed quickly with the Bill.
The enactment of the Bill would replace a series of past Acts covering immigration and asylum with one piece of legislation.
Mr O'Keeffe said Mr McDowell should first find out how many immigrants were still in the State when they should have been considered for deportation after serving a prison sentence here.
He welcomed the proposals but said the timing of the information looked like an attempt to end the focus on the two "scathing reports about the prison service which have just been published".