Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. In the limited time available to us for this procedure, we are trying to get a handle on what this is all about and it is extremely difficult. As there are 13,000 pages of legislation relating to this, we are limited in what we can do and ultimately, unfortunately we are limited in how we can influence those who make these decisions. Mr. O'Neill or Mr. Leonard might respond to those who would say that as a country, we would potentially lose control on the numbers that come into the State. How would they respond to that? The EU is trying to get all states to sign up to this. Is that an admission on our part, as a member state of the EU, that effectively, the system we have currently is not working?

If I could turn to my colleagues sitting straight ahead of me and while I would not dare speak for everyone in this room, what we are trying to reach here is, as a country, to get a system that is both fair and firm. They are the two words that are currently bandied about. There are those who legitimately have concerns in relation to the term "secondary movements", whereby some percentage - from 50% to as high as 70% - relate to people who arrived in another EU state and decided for whatever reason to come here. Why do the witnesses think that is? Why are those who flee a war-torn area and who arrive safely in an EU state then deciding to come here?