Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I express my solidarity with the Minister and her family. It is an appalling situation and should not continue anywhere.

Although I am against the introduction of the European migration and asylum pact, it is not for the reasons the Rural Independent Group outlined in the motion, so I will not support that motion. The Government will probably bring forward an amendment, which I will be happy not to support because I do not expect it to go anywhere near satisfying the concerns I have.

I am disappointed at some of the language in this motion. It is purposely misleading. Language such "large-scale immigration" and "open-door asylum seeker policy" is extremely deceiving and factually incorrect. It is dangerous to suggest we have an open-door policy or that we are seeing large-scale immigration when this is clearly not the case.

The motion claims we have no legal obligation to take in asylum seekers. What about our human rights obligations? When did we become so cold and unfeeling to those seeking protection and people seeking our help in their time of need? How dare we condemn those faced with desperate situations while we sit in our positions of immense privilege?

We would do well to remember that we were not always in this situation and that many other generations before us turned to other countries for help and protection in the past. There may come a time in the future when we are once again forced to turn to other countries for assistance. Can you imagine how it would feel to have your presence debated and your human rights debased? This is exactly what motions like this one do. The motion completely ignores the human rights at the centre of this conversation and even worse, seeks to blame them for issues such as housing, issues that were present long before this debate and would still be present if every immigrant left tomorrow.

The motion acknowledges strained public services but fails to recognise how many of those services rely on immigration. Immigrants have filled many gaps in our health and hospitality sectors. Last night, we were told that 20% of the staff who work in our hospitals are from India. That is the kind of positive impact immigration has on Irish society. The most recent census showed that labour force participation among non-Irish citizens was higher than among Irish citizens. Claiming that immigrants only exacerbate our issues and strain our services is not only extremely hurtful, but factually incorrect. Immigrants enrich and contribute to our society and do not deserve to be talked about in this way.

They also do not deserve to be treated in the way they have been by the Government or the European Union. We have seen a concerning shift in EU border policy in recent years away from humanitarian aid and towards hostile policies of surveillance and detention. This shift continues in the EU migration and asylum pact, which is an incredibly cruel pact that will only lead to more suffering and death for innocent people seeking asylum. The pact seeks to subject children to fingerprinting, thereby profiling them at a young age. This is wrong and a total violation of human dignity. More than 160 organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have expressed concern about this pact. I strongly urge the Government to listen to and act on these concerns and protect the rights of those coming to Europe, but that will hardly happen.

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