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

The suggestion there is that we would not opt in but would try to replicate what other countries are doing by not opting in but where we are still bound by the previous opt-ins. When it comes to the Dublin III regulation, if we do not opt into the new system of returns, we are still bound by the Dublin III regulation which is a less efficient system. If we do not opt in to faster processing, we can change it but we are still bound by previous arrangements. We are already part of the Common European Asylum System. We have opted in to 29 out of the 40 measures to date. We are bound by them, so if we were to change our laws and implement them, we would still have to be guided by those. It is very similar to what we are seeing happening in the UK, where it has left the EU but is now trying to mirror and mimic its own legislation to what is going on in Europe. The question then is: why would we not join, particularly when we have been part of the negotiations on all of these measures? Above all, it benefits us, so there is no logic that we would not join.