Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and her officials. It has been a very useful discussion and it is important that correct and factual information be laid out. One criticism I have of the Government is that we have been slow to do that. We have left a vacuum that others have moved into. Bad actors were referred to earlier. That is unfortunate. The purpose of this discussion is to try to get facts and information out there and then people can make up their minds once they have all the information.

It is important to say the Irish people have been more than generous in helping and rightly so. That is the nature of the people we are. Some 106,000 Ukrainians have arrived here since the war started. Last year, there were 13,000-odd international protection applicants and this year we are estimated to be on course for 20,000 applications. If we were sitting here in September 2026 and the migration pact was in play, how many people would be arriving in this country to seek international protection, all things being equal?