Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am sorry I had to miss many of the presentations, but I had to be in two places at once. There was an education debate in the Dáil Chamber. On the last point about far-right parties, many of the voices in the Oireachtas that I am hardwired to immediately disagree with have been very critical of this. That is why people like myself have been willing to give this pact a second look. The history of this whole area has been very problematic in Irish politics. We have had difficulty within the Department of Justice for a long time and I have been critical of this myself, having spent 18 months as a Minister of State. The direct provision system allowed people to languish in the system for ten years, with children growing up in the system and becoming institutionalised. There was a reluctance to allow people to work, which is a basic provision of dignity. That led on to the McMahon report in 2015 and there was compromise by many NGOs in the sector with the Department. We felt it was not fully implemented, and it certainly was not enthusiastically implemented by the Department. There was this common phrase "pull factor", which the Department of Justice always used to use at meetings, meaning that the nicer one is and the more humane one is, the more people will come here.

My question is around those who are critical of this pact and who ask Oireachtas Members not to adopt it. Is it the witnesses' position - they may have outlined it in which case I apologise because I was not in the room - that any migration pact would be a bad idea? Could there a better migration pact? Is this pact being influenced by parties on the far-right? Is it their contention that what we have right now, problematic as it is from an Irish perspective, should be done better?