Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I agree with the Deputy's comments about this being a welcoming country and about there being no room for racism in the country. It is important that we live in a country where the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition can come together in our national Parliament and say that. That is important, and I welcome that.

However, let me say this: there is no confusion and there is clarity. The reality of the situation is, as the Deputy knows better than most, that we have a common travel area between the United Kingdom and Ireland. As she knows, again, better than most, I imagine, is a really important common travel area. As she also knows, when Britain made the decision to leave the European Union, an agreement was put in place, one that was confirmed by the British Government today with regard to an operating agreement for migrants and refugees to be returned in both directions, if somebody was coming here from the UK or vice versa. It is also true to say, and a statement of fact, that in March our High Court in a ruling said that there was not an adequate legislative basis for this. The Minister for Justice has moved very swiftly and with the full support of all members of Government to clarify that and to close what I have described as a legal loophole. I very much welcome that.

I have no intention whatsoever of this country being dragged into politics in Britain. I am very well aware of the politics of Britain. It can have its migration policy and do what it wishes on that, and we have ours. Ours is a rules-based, firm migration system that endeavours to provide assistance to people in humanitarian need but also one that has to make it clear to people that if they do not have a right to be here, they need to be asked to and it needs to be ensured that they leave more quickly. A number of measures have been taken by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to bring that about.

For anybody watching this in Britain or Ireland, this is just one of a number of measures we are taking to make sure we come at this issue from all angles so that we can properly address what is a very serious situation in Ireland and across the European Union. The legislation is one element but so too is the decision that the Minister made to introduce faster processing for ten countries designated as safe countries, and also the decision she made last week to add Nigeria to that list. We know that the highest percentage of people coming here at the moment are from Nigeria and we know that as night follows day, when we introduce faster processing, the number of people coming from that country will fall. We have seen that time and time again in recent weeks. It is also why the Minister has made the decision to free up from desk jobs in immigration the work of 100 gardaí so that they can now work more closely with the PSNI on an important collaboration between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána, and also so they can work on deportations.

I do welcome, in the midst of the politics of Britain, the comments of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland yesterday. He very clearly said that he was, in his word, "comfortable" with the Irish proposal, and he talked about the importance of the two governments working together on protecting the common travel area from any abuse. Next week in Dublin, the common travel area co-ordination group was due to meet anyway. That was already scheduled. That will be an opportunity for the Minister to engage with them. This is a group that brings together officials from our two jurisdictions as well.

Regarding the 80%, or the over 80%, I also want to be clear on this. As the Deputy knows, and I presume she supports, we have an open border. People coming back and forth over the Border is invaluable for peace and prosperity on the island. However, it is also important that we listen to people on the front line. It is important that we listen to the men and women working in the International Protection Office, IPO, who tell the Minister - who then has the good form to tell this House and a committee - that they are now seeing a very significant increase in the number of people who have arrived seeking protection and who have come from the UK. It would have been an irresponsible Government that would not have shared that. We had seen a lot of activity at the airport. We took strong measures at the airport in terms of people arriving without passports, Garda checks and the like, and we always have to be agile and flexible in our response. There is no disagreement in government regarding the fact that we are seeing a very significant increase of people presenting at our IPO who have come here from the UK.

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