People granted refugee status will have to wait for three years before bringing relatives including spouses and children to Ireland under a planned tightening of family reunification rules.
On Tuesday, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will brief the Cabinet on a new International Protection Bill, which will overhaul the State’s asylum system in advance of European Union-wide rules coming into force in June.
Last November, the Government signalled it would tighten rules around family reunification for people with refugee status, restricting the ability to bring relatives into the State if refugees were not financially self-sufficient, if they had been in receipt of some social welfare payments or if they owed a debt to the State.
CEO of Doras, John Lannon, joined us on The Agenda this morning to tell us more about this.