Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to avoid any issue and I certainly take seriously what the Deputy says. I would fundamentally reject with every fibre of my being that the position of the European Union in relation to migration - and this country being a member of the EU I am not talking about Europe as something separate and disconnected from us - is in any way shape or form aligned with the policy adopted by the British Government on migration. Deputy Pringle can have a different view but I would love him to show me how and I would show him, in a briefing note, how we have a very different approach. People have a right to seek protection. We are a member state of the EU. Britain would not be allowed to do what it is doing if it was a member state of the EU. I do not want to get too much involved in the internal affairs of another country but I do think they are fundamentally different. However, I do not wish to dismiss the important points that Deputy Martin Kenny makes about the safety of people trying to access the EU. There is the importance of legal routes for migration. I often say, and I believe passionately, that we need more people to be able to come to the EU to work. We need more people to come to Ireland to work but it is about providing those legal routes. I am very clear in my mind that the EU takes a very different approach from the EU on returns, migration and some of the policies that the UK has announced recently.