Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

- Ireland requires a migration system that is not only well-managed and fair, but also stringent, efficient, and effectively enforced to safeguard our borders and our communities;

- the Government imposing large-scale immigration on a local population without consultation is inappropriate, considering the complexity and potential instability of the absorption process, and the necessity of local support for sustainable and successful integration;

- Ireland, already at a tipping point with an enormous number of international protection applicants (28,875 at 282 centres as of 17th April, 2024), is grappling with an exacerbated housing crisis and strained public services, leading to unsustainable conditions such as migrants resorting to living in tents on the streets, a shortage of housing for citizens, and a lack of tourist accommodation;

- the cost of International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) alone, as distinct from Ukrainian refugee costs, has skyrocketed from €191 million in 2021, to a staggering €653 million in 2023, and is projected to impose a colossal €1 billion burden on Irish taxpayers in 2024, as a consequence of the Government's steadfast adherence to an open-door asylum seeker policy, which is being enforced without taxpayer consultation or input, thereby raising serious democratic and financial concerns;

- the Government, which withheld the Attorney General's opinion and interdepartmental advice on the detrimental repercussions of a Yes vote in the March 8th Referendums, cannot be fully trusted to be transparent on the ramifications and financial costs associated with opting-into the European Union (EU) Migration and Asylum Pact;

- alongside Denmark, Ireland is the only country with the legal right to remain outside all or some of the Pact's measures, and we should use that ability to opt-out;

- there is absolutely no rational or logical reason why Ireland should opt-in to the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, which will require us to receive relocated quotas of asylum seeker applicants in addition to the already massive influx of International Protection applicants entering our country, especially as we have no legal obligation to do so;

- the EU Migration and Asylum Pact allows the EU to make immigration decisions for Ireland, and if Ireland opts-into the Pact, it would be binding and come with severe ramifications;

- if ratified by Ireland, the EU Migration and Asylum Pact would arguably represent the single greatest transfer of Irish constitutional sovereignty from Dublin to Brussels in the history of the State;

- opting-into the radical EU Migration and Asylum Pact means being forced to accept, in perpetuity, decisions made in the EU and abandoning any right to veto future changes to the Pact, including dramatic revisions upwards of migrant relocation quotas, as they will be determined by qualified majority voting;

- Ireland has a unique legal basis to opt-out of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, embedded under Protocol No. 21 annexed to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in the Treaty of Lisbon, which provides an opt-in or opt-out clause on individual proposals in the areas of freedom, security, and justice; and

- not a single Irish voter has been consulted by the Government, or asked at the last election nor in any subsequent vote whether they wished to transfer national sovereignty on immigration matters to the EU;

further notes that:

- the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR), one of the five legislative files that constitute the Pact, would override Ireland's sovereignty as enshrined in Articles 6.1 and 15.2.1^o of the Constitution of Ireland, by surrendering power to the EU Commission to determine how many relocated asylum seekers from countries under "migratory pressure" Ireland must receive, and the minimum level of financial contributions per asylum seeker our taxpayers must pay;

- the AMMR currently mandates an annual distribution of a minimum of 30,000 asylum seekers throughout the bloc, with member states obligated to pay a minimum compensation of €20,000 for each rejected migrant, and the power to increase these numbers and costs at any point lies solely with the EU;

- the formula used for the distribution of relocated asylum seeker applications under Article 44R of the AMMR means that Ireland will be required to accept more relocated asylum seekers than most other EU member states because of our overinflated gross domestic product as a result of the presence of the multinational sector;

- if Ireland opts-into the Pact, we are then also subject to infringement proceedings if we do not comply with relocated asylum seeker quotas;

- even Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, a renowned pro-European and centre-left on a range of social issues, declared that his government would refuse to accept any relocated asylum seekers under the Pact;

- this pact is a serious violation of our national sovereignty and the decision about who we want to accept would be made neither by Irish authorities nor by Irish law, but rather by non-elected people in EU headquarters;

- in simple terms, this Pact is an invitation to millions of migrants to come to Europe;

- the Government claims that the new rules contained within the Pact are an attempt to conduct more effective checks on migrants, as well as a goal of more rapidly returning unapproved asylum seekers to their countries of origin, yet these dual attributes are a member state competency and therefore can be implemented immediately without the need to opt-into this Pact;

- for Ireland to legally opt-into the obligations contained in the regulatory framework underpinning the Pact, the matter has to be the subject of independent decisions by Resolution separately taken by each House of the Oireachtas under Article 29 of the Constitution, yet the Government appears intent on forcing this Pact through with no proper scrutiny or public debate, which only serves to undermine our democracy and Constitution;

- the envisioned "new normal" of Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman TD, of annually accepting 15,000 to 20,000 asylum and international protection seekers is not only unsustainable but could potentially skyrocket if this Pact is ratified; and

- the Government lacks a public mandate for such a significant decision, which was not outlined in any of the Government parties' 2020 election manifestos; and

calls on the Government:

- to accept that signing the EU Migration and Asylum Pact is not only irresponsible and completely intolerant to the concerns of the Irish electorate, but a significant infringement on our constitutional sovereignty and democratic principles;

- to refrain from leveraging their majority in the Houses of the Oireachtas to expedite and unilaterally approve the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, when it contradicts the best interests of Ireland and its citizens;

- to acknowledge that the approval of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact is akin to signing a blank cheque for every year into perpetuity; and

- not to seek the approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas for the EU Migration and Asylum Pact without first:

(a) publishing the Attorney General's advice;

(b) conducting an independent financial assessment of the financial burden on the State (taxpayers) of opting-in;

(c) committing to an open, fair, transparent national debate on the ramifications of the Pact on the indefeasible rights and constitutional sovereignty, and the question of the necessity for a people's Referendum; and

(d) following steps (a), (b) and (c), to facilitate an informed debate without a guillotine in each House of the Oireachtas before any vote is cast.

I welcome the opportunity to open this debate on an issue that is front and centre in the minds of the vast majority of the Irish population. Issues regarding asylum and migration, legal and illegal, have now politicised and woken up entire generations that were detached or indifferent to the political process. Entire communities are now alert to the policy trajectory in this area and what they are seeing frightens them. These communities feel an absolute sense of loss of control. They feel that even their most peaceful efforts to ask questions and raise concerns are being framed as borderline criminal and a stealth form of cultural anarchy. Some members of the Garda wonder how normalised community relations can return in the context of an expected influx of between 15,000 and 20,000 international protection applicants annually over the next few years.

The EU pact we will attempt to debate today is the result of a long and contentious process. Some see this as evidence or confirmation of the allegedly democratic nature of the agreement. This presupposes the existence of European Union structures that care about what ordinary people think. This is a highly debatable contention. If anything, the EU and its endless procession of directives and regulations have smothered democracy in this State. We know this because, as one of the Minister of State's own MEPs put it, at least 70% of Irish legislation now comes from the EU.

We are, in effect, a colonial outpost of an EU regulatory empire whose sole function in many regards is simply to transpose those EU laws while giving the process a veneer of democratic legitimacy. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in this pact. Does this pact contain some useful principles? Yes, it does and we all want more effective processes. None of us, I hope, support the idea that our country's generosity should be abused or trampled upon under the guise of some mistaken concept of political virtue.

The crux issues revolve around the cost. What is the cost politically? What is the cost in terms of the constitutional principles around sovereignty? What is the financial cost? What is the social and cultural cost? There is an old saying that the cure must not be worse than the disease itself. This is a sound principle in all areas of life and not just in political areas. In light of this, I genuinely feel that the pact, when seen in the round, will make things worse for Ireland. This is my only concern. It may, through its so-called solidarity mechanisms, support EU member states such as Italy and Greece but what will be the overall impact on Ireland and our people?

I am here to stand up and give voice to the concerned Irish people. The majority of these people have made their feelings known in poll after poll, which the Government has refused to listen to. I am here to put these views first and foremost. We have all been here before, of course. We all remember the endless chatter about the importance of EU solidarity mechanisms during the financial crash of 2008. Tell me, who ended up on the hook for billions when our so-called EU partners forced us to bail out the EU banking system? Who is still paying the cost for this 16 years later? We are. I say this not to rehash history. I say it because it is incidents like these that should alert us to be ultra cautious whenever EU elites bang the solidarity drum and expect us all to get in line. Some of us will not get in line because we have the interests of the Irish people first and foremost and we deserve to have these interests respected at all times and not have our sovereignty and voice stifled. I say this because it is of concern to the majority of people in the State.

This week alone we have all seen ample evidence of how handing over our immigration policy to the EU has stymied any chance of resolving such issues bilaterally with our neighbours in the United Kingdom. They will not assist us in returning asylum applicants because they say they will only deal with the EU as an entire entity and not us individually. This demonstrates the unwieldy and, frankly, stupid policy requirements at work. These are requirements we will be embedding even further on acceptance of the EU pact.

We have also seen reports from Fionnán Sheahan that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is not receiving support from the Government and that she is being hung out to dry. In this regard I am reminded of what Winston Churchill once said about the Opposition occupying the benches in front of you but your enemies sitting behind you. This points to the disarray and division between the Government and its own members on this very issue, not to mention the Irish public.

For the better part of two years, we have had unnamed Government TDs expressing their rising anger and frustration at the level of Government disconnect on the asylum issue. Why are these voices not being heard? Indeed, 22 months ago I told the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, how one Fine Gael TD described the UK's Rwanda plan as a train coming down the tracks that we had no way to stop. What has happened since that time? What has the Minister been doing in the intervening 22 months to try to address this issue? It was entirely foreseeable. Government TDs saw it would happen and sure enough it is happening. Why is it only that in the past week the issue has returned to sour Irish-UK relations?

It is clear to everyone that the Government is desperately searching for a scapegoat on which it can load the sins of its own incompetence and lack of action. We have seen through freedom of information data obtained by Gary Kavanagh at Gript Media that even departmental officials were expressing unprecedented alarm at the proposals that would have destabilised our entire immigration system. These concerns may have been part of a scoping exercise prior to the referendums but it is undeniable that officials in the Department have significant concerns about decisions or agreements that remove their capacity to act with discretion. We will find out in six months' time, I am sure, when another FOI request goes in, that the officials are also expressing horror and alarm at the impact of the EU pact. It is not right that this should be the way. Will the Minister of State tell us now whether the immigration units in the Department have expressed some concerns about this pact? The people need honesty. They are asking for leadership. They need to be able to trust the Government. Unfortunately, there is a lot of mistrust.

One understanding of a pact is that it is a covenant between people. What I hear on the ground, however, is that the sacred covenant between the Government and the Irish people has been broken and there is no trust left. People do not believe what the Government is saying. It speaks about listening and consultation but its actions say otherwise. Its MEPs have the gall to tell people that protecting our borders and talk of sovereignty is far-right rhetoric. It is not. On this, as on so much else, the Government is now bankrupt of whatever political capital it had to bring people with it. We need to opt out. We also need a general election to allow people the opportunity to opt out of the Government's mandate to govern. The sooner both of these happen, the better.

See this speech in context