Mr. Noel Waters:

It will mean they will not have the opportunities they have at the moment. They will not have five or six opportunities to go to the High Court to seek judicial reviews. It would not be unusual, although the incidences have reduced in recent times, for somebody who is literally on the steps of a plane, having been removed by gardaí, to seek High Court relief to stop his or her removal. That was not unusual in the period we are discussing. We can never rule that out. People have a right to go to the courts but we are removing the opportunities for people to do so as best we can.

There is also a wider issue here in the context of what is known as the Dublin regulation. Members will be aware that people are expected and required to make their application for asylum in the first country they enter. If they do not do so, they must be removed but that is not working in any country in Europe at the moment. The arrangements around it are very complex. People have to be given opportunities to appeal. It can work better if a country can detain people but we do not detain people in Ireland. It is a matter of policy that we do not do that save for very short periods pending their removal. When I say short periods, I mean a few days at most. That is part of the process too.