Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a statement first. This is the migration and asylum pact, not the asylum pact. I wish to make that point clear, and it will become clear as to why now. We talk about sovereignty, which is an issue that has come up in the approximately 50 emails I received in recent weeks on this issue from people demanding a referendum. I agree with what was said; I do not agree that a referendum is required. The question of sovereignty is a bit of a red herring, primarily because the people voted for this, as has been outlined. Even in terms of the basis of it, we had sovereignty over people entering the State, arguably around the time of the foundation of the Republic. For the guts of 70 years, we had that element of control. However, when we signed up to the Maastricht treaty, we enshrined the freedom of movement into our sovereign responsibilities as a State, and further in 2009 with the Lisbon treaty we signed up to the potential to what we are now agreeing to. The statement was made that this is what the people signed up to and the point Deputy Harkin made, with which I fundamentally disagree, was not necessarily dismissed or argued. I do not believe this is a sovereign matter at all. The Irish people made their position very clear on this matter, albeit they had to make it twice, but they still made the decision ultimately in 2009. Therefore, the question of sovereignty does not arise. We have not had, for instance, trade sovereignty for quite a number of years. Nobody is decrying that. This matter needs to be looked at for what it is, not for what other people are interpreting it to be.

It troubles me that there are websites or mailing lists ending up in our inboxes. As members of the committee, we have all seen them in recent days when it was brought to the attention of the public that this matter would come before this committee. I wanted to offer that view and to hear what the Minister has to say on my remarks.