Ms Maeve-Anne Kenny:

I thank the Senator for the question. The screening regulation is a Schengen measure and Ireland will not be opting into that, but it is the intention for us to replicate the provisions of the screening regulation insofar as possible. If a decision is taken to opt in, the screening regulation does apply to people who are found to be irregularly staying in the territory of the member state and a screening procedure can take place at that point.

Regarding the application of the border procedures, our interpretation is that an individual should be apprehended crossing a border point. If it is a case that they, for example, show up at the International Protection Office and we have not actually apprehended them crossing a border, the border procedures will not apply. This could be subject to change. For example, it is open to us to designate other locations in the territory as a port of entry. For example, if we identified that the effectiveness of the border procedure was not what it should be, we could designate other points in the State as ports of entry for the purposes of the border procedure.