The Government may be in breach of its constitutional obligations to the family as a result of its failure to deal speedily with applications for residency from the spouses of Irish citizens, according to Jim O'Keeffe.
The Fine Gael spokesman on Justice made his comments at the weekend, following the release of figures from the Department of Justice showing that people in this position face delays of over 14 months in having their applications for residency processed.
He said no application lodged since May 2005 had even begun to be processed, leaving at least 300 foreign nationals married to Irish people in a legal limbo. He pointed out that while waiting they had no entitlement to work.
"Under Article 41 of the Constitution the State recognises the family as the natural primary and fundamental unit of society and guarantees to protect the family as the necessary basis of social order," he said.
"Furthermore, where the foreign national spouse is a male, [ the Minister] Michael McDowell's approach appears to directly contravene the Constitutional provision whereby the State recognises that by her life within the home 'a woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.' If her husband is precluded from working there appears to be a further contravention of this particular provision."
In a reply to a parliamentary question, Mr McDowell said that such applications were taking 14 months to process at the moment. The resources to process such applications were dependent on the prioritised work requirements of the Irish Nationality and Immigration Service of the department at any one time.
Mr O'Keeffe said it was right that applications should be checked carefully, to avoid marriages of convenience. But the Minister should allocate sufficient staff to have applications processed expeditiously.