The Minister for Justice is this weekend preparing legislation for Government to overcome the deportation loophole that arose in yesterday's High Court appeal by a Romanian man who had been turned down for asylum.
The High Court yesterday decided a section of the 1935 legislation - which preceded the drafting of the Constitution - was too wide in its remit and gave the Minister unconstitutionally wide powers.
The Department of Justice, it is understood, had been prepared for this challenge to the 1935 Asylum Act and has been drawing up new legislation. A new Asylum Bill is expected to be presented to Government by Tuesday and is to be put before the Oireachtas and enacted the week after next.
Yesterday's judgment concerned an appeal against deportation by Mr Sorin Laurentiu, an ethnic Hungarian who had been living in Romania, before coming to Ireland some years ago.
He was refused asylum in 1997 by the then Minister for State at the Department of Justice, Ms Joan Burton, after his case was sent to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in London. The UNHCR rejected the basis for his claim to be a political refugee.
There are 6,500 people currently seeking asylum in the State. The largest ethnic group is from Nigeria, followed by people from Romania. The next largest group is from Zaire.
Applications for asylum last year reached 3,883 - more than 100 times the number seeking asylum in the State in 1992.
In response, the aliens staff attached to the Department of Justice and Equality has risen from nine to 153 and a new office complex has been opened to deal with the rise in applications.
While some 1,370 decisions have been taken by the asylum appeals authorities set up by the Government in the past year, no deportations are expected until later this year.
In its decision yesterday the High Court found that Section 5 `e' of the 1935 Aliens Act which states: ". . . the Minister may make provision for the exclusion or deportation and exclusion of such aliens from Saorstat Eireann and provide for and authorise the making by the Minister of orders for that purpose" gave unconstitutionally wide powers to the Minister. ail and Seanad.
Ms Teresa Blake, of the Irish Refugee Council, last night said the council would welcome the clarification of the law in relation to deportation.
"The law needs to be stated clearly, precisely and with particularity in relation to deportation and in this regard the decision [to introduce new legislation] is welcome."
In a statement last evening the Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, said arrangements "are in place for the immediate drafting of a Bill to provide for the power to deport non-nationals where circumstances require it, together with the appropriate safeguards for the rights of the persons involved".
Mr O'Donoghue pointed out the procedures followed by his department in the case had been upheld as lawful by the High Court.
He added that the "power to deport is an essential provision in preventing and discouraging illegal immigration and in ensuring that the asylum procedures are not abused".
He said he was mindful of the UNHCR's view that "those who turn out not to be in need of the protection of the State should return to their country of origin". It was the Government's policy, he said, to identify as quickly as possible those asylum seekers who were in need of the protection of the State and to take "every step to help them settle in Irish society".
His statement added: "Without a clear signal and effective procedures in place to ensure that unsuccessful asylum applications will return to their countries of origin, there is a danger that the interests of those in need of the State's protection would be damaged."