Some 16,727 non-nationals have been granted the right to remain in the State under a Government residency scheme introduced following the end of automatic citizenship for Irish-born children of non-national parents.
The residency scheme was introduced following the citizenship referendum in June 2004 referendum in which four out of five voters backed plans to end automatic citizenship.
Overall the initiative attracted 17,887 applications, of which 1,002 were rejected. The remaining 158 applications are due to be processed in the coming days.
The legal status of thousands of non-nationals who sought residency on the basis of having an Irish-born child had been left in legal limbo since a Supreme Court ruling in February 2003.
It ruled that non-national parents of Irish children had no automatic right to remain here.
Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin had called for an amnesty for outstanding residency applications, but this was rejected by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, who warned of "chaos" if such a plan were put into force. Individual applications would be dealt with in a "common sense, pragmatic and decent" manner.
Despite overall figures showing that just 6 per cent of applicants were unsuccessful, a spokesman for the Minister rejected suggestions that the application scheme was in effect an amnesty.
Each application, he said, was dealt with on its own merits and had to satisfy a number of criteria.
Unlike successful refugee applicants, parents who were granted residency under the scheme will not be entitled to bring other family members or children from abroad to live with them in the State.
Where these Irish-born children have older brothers or sisters who were not born here, the siblings are also being allowed to remain.
In common with others legally resident here for five years, successful applicants would also be entitled to apply for Irish citizenship or naturalisation.
Support groups for refugees and asylum seekers have broadly welcomed the applications scheme, but have criticised the lack of provision for family reunification.
The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 introduced a new general rule that a child born in Ireland of non-national parents is entitled to citizenship if one of the parents has lived lawfully in the State for at least three of the preceding four years before the birth. Some political parties had claimed that automatic citizenship for children of non-national parents was being exploited.
The Government claimed in the run-up to the citizenship referendum that maternity hospitals were being "overrun" by non-nationals. These claims were rejected by some maternity hospitals, however.
