The Government has no plans to follow Britain's amnesty offer to as many as 50,000 asylum-seekers. The amnesty would allow the asylum-seekers to become residents even if they do not satisfy strict asylum criteria.
On Friday Britain's Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett said that some 15,000 families, equivalent to about 50,000 people in all, who have been in Britain since before October 2000, would be allowed to stay and to work, regardless of whether they complied with asylum criteria.
It is estimated that the move will save the British exchequer £180 million in support costs, but critics have said it will turn the country into a "magnet" for asylum-seekers.
A similar scheme for Ireland is "not under consideration", according to the Department of Justice.
There is "no question" of an amnesty, because the "vast majority of asylum applications are now dealt with within a six-months period", a spokesman said.
Last year there were a total of 11,641 applications for asylum, the largest ever. The figures for the first nine months of this year, at about 6,660, represented a 20 per cent drop on the same period in 2002.
The Irish Human Rights Commission has already expressed its grave concern to the Minister for Justice about the fate of Irish-born children of asylum-seekers, facing expulsion from the State.
The commission has written to the Minister about its concern and is expected to publish its correspondence this week. A spokesman for the commission said he would not be commenting on the British amnesty until more details were known.
In the past several years a number of EU countries have offered amnesties to asylum-seekers, including Italy and Belgium, which had large backlogs of applications. Mr Blunkett described his move as "clearing the decks" before the introduction of the Asylum Bill, expected in Westminster this term.
The British legislation will allow benefit payments to be stopped to asylum-seekers whose applications have failed but who refuse to leave Britain voluntarily. In addition, failed asylum-seekers will face jail if they fail to provide British immigration officials with valid travel documents.
