The decision to drop the appeal against the Supreme Court’s ruling to grant status to Permanent Resident Certificate holders was “the right thing to do”, according to Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy.

Speaking alongside Junior Minister for Home Affairs Sylvan Richards, Mr Fahy appeared on Larry Scott’s weekly talk-show on Hott 107.5 last night in an apparent effort to address what he called “misinformation” regarding the PRC issue.

On the subject of dropping the appeal, Mr Fahy said: “In the end we made a decision having kind of listened, listened extensively, that this is at the end of the day the right thing to do. The law is clear.”

Part of that decision, he said, came down to the number of applicants that would be granted Bermudian status, which he said were “not overwhelming”.

“We’re looking at 1,455 people [who] fit into the category of this. And when we also did an analysis of the dependents, the dependents are not two, three, five to ten thousand.

“Because of the nature in which dependents would obtain ... would potentially obtain status if their parents got status under the provision, then it’s a reduced number.”

Mr Fahy went on to explain that because PRC holders had to have been in Bermuda on or before July 31, 1989, the number of possible dependents is “significantly reduced”.

In order for a dependent to be granted status, said Mr Fahy, the child has to be between the ages of 18 and 22, meaning most PRC dependents would be “well in excess” of that age range.

“It’s important to be factual because there’s scaremongering that goes on that says the numbers are thousands and thousands, and that’s simply impossible. Just taking age — put aside all of the other pieces that fit around it, being of good character, not having a criminal conviction that results in moral turpitude — you would have to have a parent that had you, you know, the moment they arrived on the Island.”

Mr Fahy admitted “we perhaps could have done better in getting more of the factual information out there” — a sentiment Mr Richards candidly accepted, and a sentiment callers into the talk show also expressed, with one caller asking why the One Bermuda Alliance had not held town-hall forums over the issue as the Progressive Labour Party had.

“I concur with the Minister Fahy, there has been a lot of misinformation put out there, and I for one believe that my Government has to do a better job of communicating our policies and our strategies to the Bermudian public,” said Mr Richards, before going on to explain some of the finer details of immigration policy.

On the topic of PRC’s suffrage, Mr Richards said: “This seems to be the one that is causing the most consternation out there in the general public.”

“As a black Bermudian who’s quite cognisant of our history in the past, I and others are quite aware that, you know, giving status to people who weren’t in Bermuda, come to Bermuda, was used in the past for somewhat nefarious purposes — to boost up the voting numbers for a certain party and whatnot.”

“When we were in our caucus debating this it was a topic of conversation because of course we are ... we want to be aware of the sensitivity involved.

“We don’t want to appear to be doing the same thing here in 2014, that’s totally unacceptable and it’s totally not what this is about.”