The Minister for Justice has admitted he and his Department do not how many Irish children have left the State with their deported parents, and do not know how many have been left behind.
An estimated 11,000 non-EU parents of Irish-born children face deportation since a Supreme Court judgment in January last year that people from outside the EU could not automatically claim residency on the basis of having a baby here.
Responding to a question from Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, Sinn Féin spokesperson on justice, asking how many Irish children had left with their deported parents, Mr McDowell said:
"As Irish-born children are not subject to deportation orders, statistics are not available in respect of the numbers of such children who accompanied their non-national parents when they were being deported, or indeed the number of such children left behind in the State following the deportation of their parents or had been left behind by their parents."
The director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Ms Aisling Reidy, said the Minister's response was "absolutely disgraceful".
She said the response demonstrated the Department was making no effort to establish exactly where these children were going or what was happening to them.
The response showed the "complete failure of the Department to uphold the constitutional rights of Irish children", she said.
Ms Catherine Cosgrave, legal officer with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said the Minister's answer lacked credibility given that it was his Department which applied for visas for most of the children leaving with deported parents.
