Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not a matter for the Leader to direct a committee Chair or a committee on how to do their work. It is just not within my remit. It is the normal course of work that this draft pact be referred to a committee for consideration and it then comes back to us for consideration by the House. We will have a full debate on this on 2 May. That will be our opportunity to do this. I take on board the frustration the Senator expressed around the committee process but it is just not within my remit to deal with that as Leader. It is a matter for the committee Chair and committee members. I appreciate Senator McDowell is a member of that committee, but there is nothing I can do in respect of its work. It is just not part of my remit.

On the comments made about the European Union and the potential to make changes to the migration pact, we will have an opportunity to discuss that further on 2 May. My understanding, however, is that the pact took close to a decade to negotiate. I have seen MEPs discuss it who were involved in the work on it over the past number of years. I do not think anybody is wholly happy with it but, sometimes, when there are people on both sides who are unhappy, and you have met somewhere in the middle, you have probably got it mostly right. That is my assessment of it. I am very uncomfortable with Ireland going it alone. If 26 other member states were to move forward to work together collectively, and we were left out in the cold, I wonder what the incentive would be to help Ireland, if we were struggling with the migration issue, which we are.