Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Without question, immigration is a topic that is at the forefront of many of our minds at this time. We are reading about it in the newspapers, seeing posts online and speaking about it with our family and friends. I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak about it in the House. I want to leave Members in no doubt as to my view of immigration, which is that it has been good for this country. Many of those who have come to live and work here are breathing new life into our villages, keeping our schools open and, in working tirelessly in our hospitals and care homes, making a magnificent contribution to our health service. Many more are providing the expertise that makes us so attractive to the multinational companies whose taxes fund much of our national spending. Many others are working on construction sites, building all the homes that are desperately needed.

All of that does not mean we can be blind to the challenges that have come with some elements of migration, particularly the challenge for the international protection system in needing to provide for those who seek protection until their cases are heard and dealt with. In my role as Minister for Justice, I will never apologise for doing everything I possibly can to provide justice, solace and safety for those who are fleeing persecution. We only have to think of the scenes of war and devastation we are seeing on our televisions screens every day and night to see the need for such protection. We need only think of the awful accounts of torture that we read and hear of to see that. Knowing this, how can we possibly not want this wonderful, welcoming country of ours to provide protection to those people? The simple answer is that we cannot. We want to be a safe and welcoming place for those who need our protection. I absolutely agree with Deputy Costello that we need to send a strong message to those who wish to use a challenging situation to sow division, create fear among communities and tell people they are not welcome.

Our challenge is to manage a situation in which the protection system is often used by others, namely, those who are fleeing economic deprivation. We can have sympathy towards, and understanding of, those whose circumstances are really difficult and who long for a better life. Indeed, those were the very circumstances that led so many of our family members and ancestors to leave this country. However, there are legal paths for those who want to come here to live and work and those paths should be used. The international protection system is not for those we would call economic migrants. That is why, today, I designated a further two countries, Algeria and Botswana, as safe. In doing so, I am declaring that those who come here from those countries seeking international protection will, from tomorrow, enter into the system of accelerated processing and have their cases decided upon within 90 days. Making sure applications are processed quickly means those who need our protection are given the opportunity to rebuild their life here in Ireland in a timely manner. It also means that those who do not qualify are sent back home. This swift and fair decision-making in turn creates a disincentive for others to try to abuse the international protection system.

My Department has made significant investment in staff, technology and re-engineering processes at the International Protection Office. That investment, which has been happening for the past year and a half to two years, is delivering. Over the course of last year in particular, we tripled the number of monthly decisions, while processing times for applicants from safe countries reduced to under ten weeks, with numbers arriving from those locations dropping considerably We must do more. That is why, today, as well as expanding the list of safe countries, I also put in place a means of clamping down on those who come here having already received protection in another EU state. From tomorrow, they will enter into an inadmissibility procedure with even swifter accelerated processing.

Much has been done. With migration having become such an issue for all countries in Europe, not just Ireland, I am also looking at the implications for us of joining the EU pact on migration and asylum. Its aim is to establish a more coherent approach across the EU to migration, asylum, integration and border management. I will be recommending very soon to my Cabinet colleagues that we opt into the pact. It is a big decision but one to which we must give strong consideration. International co-operation is becoming ever more important, given the absolute necessity to ensure we are fully fit to respond, fairly but also firmly, to migration as it establishes itself as one of the biggest issues in the fast-moving world of the 21st century.

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